NASA and the Private Sector - Page 35

On April 16 2014 04:10 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
how much is Putin actually charging the U.S. of by God "A" to ferry astronauts to and from the space station?

Musk eludes to how expensive it is but never puts forth an actual number.
I sense some shenanigans and someone looking for a blank cheque.

During an event today to discuss a successful soft landing of a SpaceX Falcon flight, CEO Elon Musk also revealed that SpaceX has decided to file suit against the U.S. Air Force to get it to open up competition for national security-related rocket launches. Musk said that they were reluctant to file suit, but that the move is the last one available to them after trying to pursue other options, including complying with launch tests ordered by the Air Force before it entered into a sole-source procurement agreement that locks out private companies, which was entered into without justification, according to Musk.

“This really doesn’t seem right to us, and we’ve tried every avenue to try to figure out ‘why is this the case,’ and to try to find other avenues beyond filing a protest,” Musk said. “This contract is costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars for no reason, and to add salt to the wound, the primary engine that’s used is a Russian engine.” Musk added that it seemed like the “wrong time to send hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kremlin,” given the situation in the Ukraine.

“We have the advantage that our rocket was designed and built in the 21st century, whereas [the competition was designed in the 90s, with roots going back to the 70s and 80s,” Musk added, before going into more detail about why they’re more cost-effective (a third as expensive as those currently used under the single-source contract).

SpaceX says its recent experiment to return part of its Falcon-9 rocket back to Earth under control was a success.

The US company has confirmed that the first-stage of the vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral a week ago used its engines to slow its fall, deployed a set of legs and made a "soft landing".

For safety reasons, the touchdown was actually commanded to take place east of the Cape, far out at sea.

Nonetheless, the stage was vertical and had zero velocity on contact.

The company has video of the event - albeit of poor quality - that it plans to post on its website.

Extremely rough seas meant that a boat could not get to the scene for two days to try to salvage the stage before it sank.

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge issued an injunction late Wednesday prohibiting a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing from proceeding with plans to buy Russian-made rocket engines.

Judge Susan G. Braden’s ruling came after SpaceX, a California-based rocket company, sued the federal government Monday, protesting the Air Force’s award of a lucrative space contract, saying it should have been competitively bid.

In the suit, SpaceX criticizes United Launch Alliance (ULA) for using Russian engines in some of its rockets, which SpaceX founder Elon Musk said might be a violation of U.S. sanctions and was unseemly at a time when Russia “is the process of invading Ukraine.”

Musk alleged that the deal would benefit Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister who heads the Russian defense industry and is named by the U.S. government in the sanctions.