Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC) challenges Boeing and SpaceX spacecraft contract

An interior view of Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft.

Credit: Boeing

Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC) said it had filed a legal challenge to NASA’s award of contracts totaling $6.8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX to build commercially owned and operated “space taxis” to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA had considered a bid by privately owned Sierra Nevada, but U.S. officials said on Tuesday the U.S. space agency had opted to award long-time aerospace contractor Boeing and SpaceX with contracts to develop, certify and fly their seven-person capsules.

SNC said its bid could have saved up to $900 million and that NASA’s statements “indicate that there are serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process.”

“SNC, therefore, feels that there is no alternative but to institute a legal challenge,” it added in a statement on Friday.

Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion and SpaceX $2.6 billion. SpaceX is run by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, also chief executive of electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc.

“With the current awards, the U.S. government would spend up to $900 million more at the publicly announced contracted level for a space program equivalent to the program that SNC proposed,” Sierra Nevada said.

It said a “thorough review must be conducted of the award decision.”

The space taxis would end U.S. dependence on Russia for rides to the space station.

The contract has taken on new urgency given rising tensions over Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

EADS wins lucrative ESA Contract for Ariane 6 Launcher - No Surprise

European Airbus Defence and Space (EADS), number two worldwide in space technologies and ESA's prime contractor, has been awarded a 60-million-euro contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to continue definition and feasibility studies in 2014, for the new Ariane 6 European launcher.

These studies will pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher's main characteristics.

The results of these studies will be revealed in November 2014 at ESA's System Requirements Review (SRR).

Validation of the programme's progress should allow ESA to set the specifications of the Ariane 6 launch system, which will then enable member states to decide on continuation of the new launcher's development at the next ESA Ministerial Council meeting, scheduled for December 2014.

European Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) will continue fine tuning the definition of the Ariane 6 launcher, while in parallel developing the Ariane 5 ME launcher and, in particular, developing many features common to both Ariane 5 ME and Ariane 6.

The ESA contracts awarded to EADS Astrium (now owned and integrated into European Airbus Defence and Space, EADS) in 2013 include developing the Ariane 5 ME with the aim of improving Ariane 5 performance by over 20% by 2018.

At the November 2012 Ministerial Council meeting, ESA decided to commence definition studies for the new Ariane 6 launcher and to continue with the development of Ariane 5 ME, while also seeking to maximise synergies between the two future launchers.

None of this comes as any surprise as EADS continues to benefit from its close contact with the directors of ESA and its near-monopoly hold on European Space Technology, Satellite and Launcher systems.

Controversy Over ESA MeteoSat Contract: European Weather Satellite

ESA Website link to MTG Sentinel-2 satellites

German government officials are blaming their own tactical error during negotiations with France for the controversy that has blocked approval of Europe’s $1.7 billion next-generation weather-satellite program since the beginning of the year and now threatens to cause lasting damage to the 18-nation European Space Agency (ESA), German government and industry officials said.

ESA’s ruling council is scheduled to meet March 17 in Paris to attempt to forge a compromise that would permit the German government to save face while at the same time approving a Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) contract valued about around 1.25 billion euros ($1.7 billion) with a consortium led by Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, and OHB Technology of Germany.

That winning bid, in which Thales Alenia Space’s French division would be prime contractor, bested a bid by Astrium Satellites of Germany.

An ESA Technical Evaluation Board met three times before concluding that the Thales Alenia-OHB bid, which came in about 150 million euros lower than Astrium’s offer, should be favored for negotiations in view to a contract.

The decision to favor a French prime contractor — even one teaming with a German partner — has struck a raw nerve in Germany, particularly at the German Transport Ministry, which funds Germany’s contributions to Europe’s Eumetsat meteorological satellite organization.

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