SpaceX wins the majority of US national-security launches

SpaceX became the backbone of US national-security space launch. With Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy fully certified for the most demanding National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions, SpaceX won the majority of the launches awarded under the Space Force’s NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 program for fiscal 2026, ahead of United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin.

Carrying the nation’s most sensitive satellites is a trust earned through a long record of reliability. That a company once dismissed as a risky upstart now launches most of America’s critical defense and intelligence payloads is a measure of how thoroughly SpaceX changed the launch industry.

The dominance is itself a national-security asset: assured, on-demand access to space means the US can replace or augment critical satellites within days during a crisis rather than waiting years for a launch slot. Competitors are racing to certify rival rockets precisely because depending on a single provider is a recognised risk — but that they must catch up to SpaceX, rather than the reverse, is the clearest measure of how far the company moved the field.