COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — SpaceX has submitted paperwork to the US Air Force to begin certification on its Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, the company's president said Wednesday.

In a Wednesday interview, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, told Defense Newsthat the company expects the Air Force to begin the certification process in full once it completes certification for the Falcon 9 vehicle this summer.

The Falcon Heavy, which is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, would provide the Air Force with the heavy-lift capability necessary for larger national security payloads. That is currently a capability only provided by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy, which is used every two- to three years.

The certification process for SpaceX has been a difficult one, particularly after accusations from SpaceX founder Elon Musk that the Air Force was purposefully slow-rolling the process in order to protect legacy provider ULA.

Shotwell, however, expressed confidence that the Falcon Heavy certification process would go more quickly than that of the Falcon 9 both due to expected alterations to the certification process and because the company will be able to roll over some of their data to the Air Force.

"I think it will definitely move faster," Shotwell said. "Even if we didn't change the certification process, part of the certification process is assessing SpaceX as a company. And going frorm one vehicle to another doesn't change SpaceX as a company."

"The manufacturing audits, the process audits, the quality audits, the risk management approach we take — it's the same. So I think, by definition, certification will be much quicker."

Still, Shotwell acknowledged that the process will take some time before it's completed.

In the meantime, the company is eagerly awaiting the certification on Falcon 9 to be finished.completed. Air Force officials have said they hope to have the process done by June, a date Shotwell confirmed both sides are on track for, "if not a little bit sooner."

Asked how much sooner, however, Shotwell laughed and said, "there's a lot of paperwork to wrap up right now so it really depends on the throughput for both teams. ... We'll just stick with June. That's safer."

Email: amehta@defensenews.com

Twitter: @AaronMehta

About Aaron Mehta

Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.

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