The US Congress has begun the "markup" process to consider budget appropriations for fiscal year 2018, and on Thursday, the House subcommittee overseeing Strategic Forces held a hearing for the National Defense Authorization Act. This bill provides funding for the military, including the Air Force, which oversees efforts to launch spy and communications satellites, as well as other national defense payloads.

As part of the process, Arizona Republican Trent Franks offered an amendment that stated the government should move rapidly to evaluate the potential use of reusable space launch vehicles such as those being flown by SpaceX. Co-sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross, the amendment passed on a voice vote.

This represents a remarkable turnaround for SpaceX and the federal government. After filing a lawsuit against the Air Force three years ago for the right to bid on military launch contracts, the California-based company only began flying military payloads for the government in May. Now lawmakers seem to be warming quickly to the company's vision of low-cost access to space.

During the hearing, Franks said reusable rockets had the potential to enhance the nation's warfighting capability.

He said:

The US government should fly reusable rockets when it's safe and makes sense to do so... Reusable rockets are proven. Blue Origin flew a reusable suborbital rocket, and SpaceX has flown reused orbital rockets. Reusability is not inherently less safe, and other countries are moving toward that capability. If savings are to be achieved at reasonable risk, why not use reusable rockets?

The amendment directs the Secretary of Defense to brief the Committee on Armed Services by March 1, 2018 on the department's plan to evaluate the risks, benefits, costs, and potential cost-savings of the use of reusable launch vehicles for use in national security space missions.

In recent weeks, the US Department of Defense has signaled its openness to commercial spaceflight. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson recently praised competition in the commercial space industry for bringing down the price of access to space. And just this week, Gen. John Hyten, the head of US Strategic Command, said the military must embrace risk and be willing to fail when it comes to 21st-century activities in space. Now the US House seems to be coming on board with this approach.