"Certainly, it's a big loss for Raytheon," Marco Caceres, a senior analyst at the Teal Group, said in an e-mail. "The issue of tracking space debris will only grow substantially in importance over the next few years, as potentially thousands of new micro, nano, pico, and femto satellites will be launched to low earth orbit." He added, "The Space Fence is a billion-dollar program that will continue to grow in value for decades to come, so it would have represented a long-term revenue stream for Raytheon."

The problem is that the Space Launch System program lacks a clear mission, according to Marco Caceres, director of space studies at the Teal Group Corp., a defense industry think tank. “They’ve toyed with lassoing an asteroid and hauling it to the moon, or using it as a vehicle to take people back to the moon, but it’s not clear why” we’re funding SLS, Caceres said.

The political landscape may have changed, however, now that Russia has blocked sales of its Russian RD-180 rockets, which are used to launch U.S. defense satellites. Russia also has announced that it plans to end its operations on the ISS in 2020, effectively disabling the station. “There’s a good chance that SLS will be developed and built, mainly because politically it just looks bad to not be developing your own national launch vehicle and we have to rely on Russia to launch our astronauts,” Caceres said.

The problem is that the Space Launch System program lacks a clear mission, according to Marco Caceres, director of space studies at the Teal Group Corp., a defense industry think tank. “They’ve toyed with lassoing an asteroid and hauling it to the moon, or using it as a vehicle to take people back to the moon, but it’s not clear why” we’re funding SLS, Caceres said.

The political landscape may have changed, however, now that Russia has blocked sales of its Russian RD-180 rockets, which are used to launch U.S. defense satellites. Russia also has announced that it plans to end its operations on the ISS in 2020, effectively disabling the station. “There’s a good chance that SLS will be developed and built, mainly because politically it just looks bad to not be developing your own national launch vehicle and we have to rely on Russia to launch our astronauts,” Caceres said.

Success would mark the 36th completed mission for the company since 1999, and its first since December 2012. Sea Launch still is reeling from a 2009 bankruptcy in which Boeing relinquished a majority share. The ills continued this year with the departure of President Kjell Karlsen and the delay of Sea Launch’s latest mission. “Their whole history has been one of challenges,” said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst for the aerospace and defense market research firm Teal Group Corp. “It’s a company that’s really a survivor. I’d never count them out.”

Marco Caceres, senior space analyst for the Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group, said there have been no public disclosures of any anomalies in the April 18 mission. Caceres, who follows the launch industry, said that even if there was a glitch with the mission, such as falling short of the intended orbit, it was a success because the SpaceX vehicle was able to dock with the space station. “Rockets don’t usually fall short in delivering their payloads to the intended orbit, but it happens on occasion,” he said. “It’s certainly legitimate for Rogers to ask.”