SpaceX
There’s a new truth that’s becoming harder to escape about NASA’s push for commercial contracting: Companies other than SpaceX are struggling with the agency’s approach to signing fixed-price contracts for space services.
This belief is Recent Awards An $843 million contract with SpaceX for a heavily modified Dragon spacecraft that will be used to deorbit the International Space Station by 2030.
Recently Released Source selection statement The U.S. Deorbiter contract process, led by NASA’s space operations chief Ken Bowersox, shows the competition was a complete landslide victory: the only significant competitor SpaceX faced in the process was Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX beat Northrop by a wide margin in all three categories: price, mission suitability, and past performance.
While it’s great that NASA has a great contractor in SpaceX, it’s not healthy in the long run to have so few credible competitors. Furthermore, a careful reading of the Source Selection Statement shows that NASA really had to work hard to get competitors.
“We’ve been really pleased with the responses we’ve received from the companies that we proposed to,” Bowersox said in a media conference call last week. “Both of the companies that submitted proposals are great companies, and the level of interest has been fantastic. We expected to receive more proposals, but… [proposals]But to be honest, I was very happy with what we got.”
Commercial efforts struggle
NASA’s foray into “commercial” space began almost 20 years ago with its cargo program to the International Space Station. NASA initially selected SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler to develop rockets and spacecraft for this purpose, but Kistler was subsequently replaced by Orbital Sciences Corporation after failing to meet its goals. The cargo program was a huge success, resulting in the Cargo Dragon (SpaceX) and Cygnus (Orbital Sciences) spacecraft. The program continues to this day.
A commercial approach generally means that NASA pays a “fixed” price for services, rather than paying the contractor’s costs and fees. It also means that NASA hopes to be one customer among many. The idea is for NASA to act as a pioneer and help stimulate a market in which fixed-price contractors can sell their services to other organizations, both private companies and other space agencies.
NASA has since expanded this commercial approach to human spaceflight, with SpaceX and Boeing awarded major contracts in 2014. But only SpaceX has actually flown a mission with astronauts on board; Boeing is still in the development and testing phase, with crewed flight tests still ongoing. SpaceX has sold six private crewed missions for Dragon, but Boeing has yet to announce any.
This commercial approach has been attempted with lunar cargo transportation through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, as well as large lunar landers (human landing systems), next-generation space suits, and a commercial space station. All of these programs have had mixed records at best. For example, NASA’s Inspector General was highly critical of the lunar cargo program. In a recent reportand Collins Aerospace, one of the two spacesuit contractors. Recently dropped out This was due to failure to fulfil fixed price contracts.
Some of NASA’s most important traditional space contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, have said they are reconsidering whether to compete for fixed-price contracts in the future. For example, Northrop CEO Cathy Warden said: Last August“We will continue to work with the government to be more disciplined in making the most of fixed-price contracts.”
As a result, large traditional space contractors do not favor fixed-price contracts, and many new space companies struggle to survive in this environment.
