SpaceX Protests Award of Launch Contract to Orbital
By Turner Brinton
WASHINGTON — Rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has challenged a U.S. government launch services order placed with Orbital Sciences Corp., arguing that under U.S. federal law the contract should have been competitively awarded.
On Sept. 14, the U.S. Air Force issued a task order to Dulles, Va.-based Orbital to launch NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft using surplus missile hardware, according to an Oct. 26 protest filed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Orbital has been launching government satellites with rockets based on ballistic missile motors since 2000.
LADEE would be launched in May 2012 aboard a Minotaur 5 rocket, which utilizes decommissioned Peacekeeper missile motors. The five-stage rocket, the largest of the Minotaur family, has yet to make its debut.
Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX believes it can provide the launch services with either its Falcon 1e or Falcon 9 rocket at a cost savings to the government, according to documents obtained by Space News. The Air Force never inquired with SpaceX as to whether it could meet the mission’s requirements, the company said.
The protest could revive a long-running but recently dormant policy debate over whether the use of excess missile hardware to launch satellites undermines the U.S. commercial space industry.
SpaceX claims Orbital’s contract award violates the Commercial Space Act of 1998, which among other things requires the U.S. government to buy launch services from U.S. commercial providers whenever possible. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis provided the secretary of defense certifies to Congress that the requirements of the mission in question preclude the use of commercial services. SpaceX argues that Orbital cannot be considered a commercial provider in the case of LADEE because it is using government-issued hardware.
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