Is there any other player that will commit with fixed-cost contract? Cost-plus is a joke.
NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
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Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#22> Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, fired back: "SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words." Still marking his words on self-driving vehicles so I guess we can add this to the list. What’s the casualty count so far on that one btw? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_for_autono...
You need to keep two things in your mind at the same time:
Elon Musk sometimes say things that are true.
Elon Must sometimes say things that are not true.
In this case, it's the first one.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#23Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#24I love how government acquisitions works. A company can fail to deliver the final product, then use the recompete process to win a higher paying contract by using the progress they already made on the previous contract to demonstrate a performance level above their competitors. Whereas all the competition has to use their own R&D budget to show capability to meet the requirements of the second contract, the winner of…
Everyone hates on the Government. But that describes every competitive bid process used by many corporations. Any company can do that to another company. Welcome to Capitalism. Just because it is a government contract doesn't by default mean it is Socialism. And, of course they can re-bid. Just like every other corporation does.
I didn't imply socialism. It's probably my fault you inferred it though as I'm blissfully ignorant of whatever the current echoes are these days that get people chirping in a specific direction.
No I'm just assuming SpaceX will win the recompetition and complaining about that future event.
And no, it doesn't need to be an "of course they can" inevitability. The rules of competition define what can and can't happen. If the rules of this competition allow a rebid, then that is a conscious decision. Rules / laws could be changed to disallow rebidding on follow-on contracts if there was a failure to deliver on the first one.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#25About damn time!
Who do you think is capable of competing, given that they didn't win the bid the first time round?
Regardless of capability, it's in NASA's best interests and our best interests to encourage others to try. I think we are better off if the rocket industry (and every industry) is not dominated by a single organization, even if we believe that organization is altruistic and excellent.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#26I love how government acquisitions works. A company can fail to deliver the final product, then use the recompete process to win a higher paying contract by using the progress they already made on the previous contract to demonstrate a performance level above their competitors. Whereas all the competition has to use their own R&D budget to show capability to meet the requirements of the second contract, the winner of…
I'm confused. Who are you talking about here? SpaceX has consistently been on the wrong end of what you write about, with ULA/Boeing/whatever pulling that kind of stunt again and again. Just look at the SLS budget.
I'm assuming SpaceX will win this, and lamenting that. However I'm also being more general because you are absolutely on the same page as me that this is a decades-old problem.
I don't hate the player, I hate the game.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#27Since blue origin is still developing their new glenn rocket with only a single launch so far what is the chance they use falcon heavy to deliver their blue moon lander
Starship is more flight ready then SLS and new Glenn. It's just not fully reusable yet, so it's not ready by Spacex standards but far ahead of anyone else in the world. They could also use falcon heavy but might as well use Starship, unless they need dragon.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah who is going to deliver faster and more reliable than SpaceX? Boeing? LM? Doubt
I don't know who else can, but I do seriously doubt SpaceX is going to be able to deliver within the next decade or so either.
They're by far the ones with the most relevant experience and actually flying hardware (human spaceflight, propulsive landing, flight testing hardware for HLS), in the US.
I don't think it's going to take them a decade, but they probably won't be ready within Trump's term, and I think that's the real reason for this latest push.
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#29[flagged]
Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission
#30Is this realistic? Doesn't the development timelines for a new large rocket stretch into more than a decade? Unless someone else had one under development... Could this just be a pressure tactic on SpaceX?
This contract isn’t for launch - that will be SLS (in theory) - rather for the lander.
Which highlights how unserious this whole thing is. SLS hardly works and is way behind schedule.