If they follow through with their intent mentioned earlier today to try and force an honest competition for the SLS booster system, that’s great news. One of my single biggest pet peeves about CxP was that NASA, behind closed doors, and without open input from industry (other than ATK) comes up with a plan that keeps ATK from having to face honest competition for its SRB business for another several decades. The fact that Shelby could with a straight face use terms like bailouts to refer to NASA’s Commercial Crew/Cargo efforts, while countenancing an uncompeted contract worth billions of dollars to a company that just so happens to be his biggest campaign contributor just goes to show part of what’s wrong with our government.
Bravo Aerojet for showing some cajones! If you guys setup a legal fund to help pay for trying to force this issue, you’d have at least one donation.
Jonathan Goff
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“Bravo Aerojet for showing some cajones! If you guys setup a legal fund to help pay for trying to force this issue, you’d have at least one donation.”
Make that at least two, Jon. And I’m sure there are a lot of others who will echo that commitment.
Three for sure. Competition good, allows a little transparency into the process. God knows, we need some of that at all levels of governent.
Please excuse spelling, fat fingers hit wrong key!
While I approve of Aerojet’s actions, the timing on this is a tad suspicious, coming on the heels of NASA’s declaration that it can’t build the SD-HLV Congress wants with the monies allocated. I’m sure it’s been recognized for quite some time that Congress’ actions were counter the contracting rules. One wonders if this is part of a coordinated action on the part of the Administration.
Either way, should the competitive biddings and legal actions drag on, it lessens the probability of SD-HLV moving forward. Direct: always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
And it’s not an ‘upstart’ company but an old, well established, company that’s insisting NASA and the US Government play by the rules for contracts and contracting. *That’s* a telling comment/indicator.
SpaceX shouldn’t do it alone. 😉