Elon Musk wants SpaceX to launch spy sats – and will sue US gov to do so SpaceX has vowed to sue the US government for the right to compete for contracts to launch spy satellites – a market worth up to $70bn that's monopolised by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The California-headquartered upstart, founded by internet tycoon Elon Musk, has only just sent up supplies to the International Space Station …
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Or, to look at it from another entirely plausible angle, spending 4 times less money will mean their budget being slashed by three quarters which is something they definitely don't want to happen as there will be less loose change to spend on their pet projects. Just because you aren't spending the money this year doesn't mean you won't want it in next years budget. Plus the larger a budget, the easier it is to siphon money from it without anyone noticing.
This is why every year local governments in the UK go on a spending spree just before their budget is reviewed, if they haven't spent all the money allocated to them for the past year they get less money for the coming year. So suddenly they care about fixing all the potholes that they've ignored for the preceding 11 months. They'd much rather have too much money than exactly the amount they need.
True, but the Russians have the only man rated rockets at presented(well them and the chinese) so if you want to kept your personnel to and from the ISS then there has to be something in it for the Russians.
The US governments and NASA botching of manned spaceflight program is starting to hurt now.
"Atlas rockets do not service the ISS, so no. Servicing is by Soyuz, SpaceX Dragon or Orbital Science Cygnus (IIRC)"
Currently.
But both Dream Chaser and the CTS100 capsule of the CCiCAP programme use it for their LV.
Boeing say they could fly on other launchers but it's the only big one (outside F9) that's human rated.
Indeed. Lots of commentary around the net on how Musk isn't offering enough jobs/greasing enough palms of those signing the contracts to really make a mark. Still, he's got a lot of press off this, so just maybe something will happen.
It's a pretty sad show when the only way you can get this sort of contract is to bribe the officials involved. Especially when the USA is always going on about the Foreign Corruption Act or whatever its called. I think they need to look inwards before looking outwards.
It's a crooked game, but that's the way it's played. But it isn't necessarily greasing the palms. My roomie work with the military. Just about everything built except bullets has at least one part from every state in it. That gives you Senate passage and a decent start in the House at budget time. The ideal equipment has at least 436 parts so you can get everyone on board.
SpaceX was not cleared for all types of payloads. They are trying to pressure USA Security to clear them for more payloads. SpaceX does NOT follow ULA's rules on having all workers get security clearances, beforehand.
It will get fixed.
Wait for them to go after ESA payloads, then...
Well the man in the black helicopter is making me type this, but.....
ULA have a track record of launching these things - Space X are pretty new - so I can see that logic might dictate - 'hey it's expensive, but we know what we are getting' vs 'sure - it's cheaper but will it work?'. I guess they really really care that whatever these things carry gets to wherever they are going on time.
Musk says he will save the US govt a Billion dollars - but i'm guessing that most of that billion will go to lawyers! Still if you aggregated all the champagne corks you might get something into orbit.
Anyway-_ I trust the Lohan team are filing their counter suit!
Cost them the same if one of the other guys drops the rocket. And they didn't exclude them on that basis, which was the poster's point.
DoD especially is required to look for competitive bids from multiple vendors. Ideally 3, but at least two. The current contract barely makes it by allowing lawyers to torture the word until they mean the opposite of what they actually mean. One joint venture (therefore only one entity bidding) with two suppliers to the single entity. Musk should have been the second entity bidding. Salt in the wound is that the contract effectively looks him out of the market for the next 3 years. Exactly the time during which he'll be coming on line for commercial production and reliability.
"Anyway we can put Elon IN one of his rockets... and send him on a one-way trip somewhere?"
Bad form, sir. Bad form.
The one reason I can imagine not opening up the contract bidding is the super secret nature of the business, but that shouldn't be something Musk and others can't work to become certified for.
The USAF keeps moving the goalposts for "National Payload Certified" - first it was a certain number of launches w/o failure, and SpaceX got that, then it was launching to geosynchronous successfully, and SpaceX got that, and then it was handling sooper-sekrit satellite information, and SpaceX got that, and then it was something else I forget, and SpaceX got that too. The DoD/USAF still "but you're not certified" and hands the contract to their ULA golf buddies.
So Musk has had enough, obviously.
"The USAF keeps moving the goalposts for "National Payload Certified" - first it was a certain number of launches w/o failure, and SpaceX got that, then it was launching to geosynchronous successfully, and SpaceX got that, and then it was handling sooper-sekrit satellite information, and SpaceX got that, and then it was something else I forget, and SpaceX got that too. The DoD/USAF still "but you're not certified" and hands the contract to their ULA golf buddies."
Actually the requirement was 3 successful launches in exactly the configuration the USAF would use (IE Merlin v1.1 engines and a fairing, so Draons don't count).
But (and I think this is the thing that's got Musk p***ed off) a few days before the 3rd launch the USAF signed the 36 core block buy. TBF the USAF though Space would not be able to compete before 2016 at the earliest, but the fact they were days away from getting the results of the 3rd (successful) flight is just bizarre.
...and all the parasites they employ in DC to do the bidding for them and keep these no-bid contracts.
Every time when I hear a Boeing employee making comments about Airbus' subsidies with a straight face I always ask him just what does he think about Boeing's long-term survival without their subsidized military revenue stream...?
Typical American corporate behavior, crying out loud for competition but then not only trying to monopolize their access to markets but even subsidizing the cost of their R&D... pathetic.
there was a law/act that required DoD suppliers to "buy/build/etc. American". The rationale was that if war occurred, they wanted their supplies to not be dependent upon an enemy. On the plus side, the money spent on such items stayed in this country. So... we're using Russian engines to launch spy satellites as the Russians more and more become less friendly. If they cut off the engine deliveries, the USAF spy satellite program is screwed. I have to wonder where DoD's collective head is....
...and the shadow government.
Elon had better be very careful. People and/or projects have "accidents" when going up against Lockheed.
Research the history of the DC-X project (Delta Clipper). Space flight was set back 20 years. And just for fun, also research how Lock heed acquires contracts in the first place.
"Research the history of the DC-X project (Delta Clipper). Space flight was set back 20 years. And just for fun, also research how Lock heed acquires contracts in the first place."
It's a curious thing about Lockheed that somehow, even when it closes an aircraft competition it's aircraft gets built or bought.
You can go further back by Googling "Lockheed bribe scandal" and King of Holland.
You have to look at the entire picture. Those spy satellites cost over $1 billion, and ULA has a 100% success record over 81 launches. Since SpaceX did not have a long record of launches and a 90% success rate for their five launches at the time, it was prudent for the DOD to go with ULA. In a couple years time if SpaceX has built up a 98% success rate they may have a point then.
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