SpaceX Sues to Break Spy Satellite Launch Monopoly

[Purveyor]

Source: Popular Mechanics

April 25, 2014 2:07 PM

Elon Musk has declared war on the United Launch Alliance (ULA). Today at a press conference in Washington D.C., the entrepreneur declared that his company SpaceX is filing suit in the Court of Federal Claims to protest the monopoly that currently conducts Air Force and spy agency satellite launches. SpaceX wants to start competing with the ULA for launch contracts as soon as this year (though there are only 14 opportunities for that open competition).

"This is not SpaceX saying these launches should be awarded to us," Musk said. "If we compete and lose, that's fine. But why are they not even competed? This is not right."

SpaceX vs. ULA

Musk's protest involves the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, which the ULA (a joint company run by Boeing and Lockheed Martin) uses to launch Air Force and spy agency satellies. In December, the Air Force announced a block buy with ULA of three contracts with a combined value of just more than $3 billion. The Air Force says that the combined purchase saves the government money, but Musk argues that opening the contract to competition would save even more. Musk's rockets cost $60 million per launch. With added Air Force requirements, that price rises to $90 million. Still, he compares to a cost of $380 million for a ULA launch.

"The ULA rockets are basically four times more expensive," Musk said Friday. "This contract is costing us taxpayers billions of dollars for no reason."

Read more: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/spacex-sues-to-break-spy-satellite-launch-monopoly-16731578?click=pm_news

[truthisfreedom]

1. Go Elon Musk!!

[mikefrancis]

7. Yes! Because if there's one thing the space program needs more of, it's lawyers.

[penultimate]

8. How do you propose they solve this particular issue?

Say pretty please?

[ohnoyoudidnt]

14. If a lesser evil is the only choice, I'll take it. nt

[liberal N proud]

2. Monopoly by big government contractors

Boeing and Lockheed Martin have a lock on this and keep sucking off the government teat.


You never hear the right talk about these moochers.

[maddezmom]

3. Kick

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. Which one employes union labor?

[NYC_SKP]

11. Elon Musk supports prevaiiling wage.

I sent him a $2,500,000 job on that condition.

Works for me.

[Adrahil]

5. Go SpaceX!

I visited one of their facilities a little while ago. Good workplace culture.

[rafeh1]

6. musk attacking the MIC

Its one thing to take one russia, china and france. Its quite another to go after the MIC and its sweetheart welfare payments. Musk better hire some serious body guards. the MIC doesn't play nice when its billions of corporate welfare are at risk.

Elon musk for gov of California

[dogknob]

10. Welfare queens tend to get stabby when you cut off their checks...

...and since they all look alike anyway, they can be hard to pick out of a lineup.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Good for Elon Musk.

Again.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Pentagon says it cannot replace imported Russian rocket engines

The Pentagon cannot find a replacement for the Russian rocket engines it buys anytime soon, a senior official has revealed. The import of the engines has for now been banned via a court order lobbied by SpaceX and based on sanctions against Russia.

Washington may soon find it problematic to continue launching its military satellites, as a long-time supply connection between Russian and US defense companies has been halted and is being reviewed – all because of sanctions against Moscow in connection with the Ukrainian crisis.

Earlier ordered by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the review of US Air Force dependence on the Russian-made RD-180 engine, used in American Atlas V rockets, has not yielded any solutions.

“We don’t have a great solution. We haven’t made any decisions yet,” Frank Kendall, the US undersecretary of defense for acquisition, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg in a Thursday article. The defense official spoke to the outlet after testifying before a Senate committee on the matter on Wednesday.

http://rt.com/news/156248-russian-rocket-engines-pentagon/

[Purveyor]

13. Buffoons... eom

[joshcryer]

16. "we’re in pretty good shape"

The Air Force review, which hasn’t been submitted to Hagel, found that the Russian company, NPO Energomash, is “very dependent on their sales to us,” Kendall said. “That company really needs the sales. From that side of it, we’re in pretty good shape.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/replacing-russian-rocket-engine-isn-t-easy-pentagon-says.html

Russia's blustering is proving SpaceX's point. Idiots. Russia's space program is going to collapse. Particularly as NPO Enegromash collapses and its oligarch interests bail ship.

[joshcryer]

15. Gotta love RT's spin, we have a 2 year supply.

But they just pop that there at the end.

That's more than enough time.