My Space Blog

Reuters is reporting that NASA has halted work on the COTS contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, pending the results of a protest by the third and unsuccessful bidder. PlanetSpace, a partnership between established space-business players Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, and Alliant Techsystems Inc, claims that its proposal represents better value to the government.

NASA says that the protest, made through the General Accountability Office (GAO) requires it to stop work in response to the complaint. NASA has 30 days to respond to the protest and the GAO will issue a ruling by April 29.

The whole issue revolves around the need to maintain US access to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2010, when the Shuttle program is scheduled for retirement, and 2015 when the proposed Shuttle replacement is ready. NASA is relying on the Russian Soyuz program to transport astronauts. However, NASA has decided to use commercial contractors for US cargo deliveries to the space station rather than relying on the Russian Progress cargo vehicles, which already carry cargo to the ISS.

From the Orlando Sentinel, a reported phone call from Mike Griffin, the NASA administrator:

Industry officials say that a few days later, Griffin called Robert Stevens, the CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., which jointly owns ULA together with Boeing Co., and demanded that Stevens stop what Griffin called the subsidiary’s efforts to “kill Ares I” by promoting versions of its own rockets that could carry humans to space.

Maybe Mike Griffin should get his wife to call.  She seems to be doing pretty good rallying people around the effort to keep the Administrator in his job.