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NASA usually only has one contractor. Having two is very rare. In this case, they would have liked two, but didn't have the funding for it. The competition wa
by nickik 5y ago
NASA usually only has one contractor. Having two is very rare.
In this case, they would have liked two, but didn't have the funding for it.
The competition was set up to provide freedom to the contractors. NASA wanted contractors to bring ideas. They had minimum criteria but NASA tried to keep these general.
The contractors were then evaluated, technically and for management, and their financial bid was evaluated.
- aml183 5y agoThat isn’t true. NASA has many contractors. The biggest joke made about NASA is that it exists to give as many jobs to different Congressional districts as possible. The SpaceX bid wasn’t just superior to the other two bids, it also aligned with the Artemis’s mission to get to Mars. SpaceX’s Starship is about getting to Mars and the Moon is just a stop. Dynetics and Blue Origin’s bid was about getting to the Moon. It didn’t support the longer term vision of Artemis IMO. I think many people also forget this is the first of two Lunar bids. The second will be for “recurring landing services”. For all the criticism of Elon, SpaceX is a far superior launch company to what is currently in the market. We will see what will happen with ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, but right now SpaceX is winning. I run a space media company. You can sign up for our newsletter here: https://www.payloadresearch.com/ https://www.payloadresearch.com/
- nickik 5y agoYou misunderstand. Sure NASA has many contractors, but not for the exact same thing. Commercial crew and commercial cargo is one of very few programs that do. > The SpaceX bid wasn’t just superior to the other two bids, it also aligned with the Artemis’s mission to get to Mars. Agree, it was clearly the best. But the Mars part was a very small of the evaluation in the document.