SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says Falcon 9 certification is expected this year, "in time to compete for the first round" of Air Force contracts to be awarded in 2014 under the service's Evolved, Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

“We anticipate awards in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2014," she told Aviation Week & Space Technology in a Feb. 27 interview.

Last month, SpaceX moved a step closer to bidding for U.S. national security launch contracts when the Air Force announced that a Sept. 29 debut of the new Falcon 9 v1.1 would count as the first of three launches needed to qualify the rocket.