Utah Congressional Delegation to Investigate NASA Commercial Crew Awards

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Doug Messier
on August 4, 2012, at 10:57 am
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Comments: 13 responses
13 Comments

Rep. Rob Bishop

There was no joy in Utah on Friday as ATK got shut out of NASA’s commercial crew awards. Awards went instead to Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation and SpaceX.

The company released the following statement:

ATK and the Liberty Team are disappointed that we were not selected by NASA for a Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Space Act Agreement. We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability and engage the workforce and facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Flight Center and others. We look forward to a debriefing from NASA.

Meanwhile, Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop condemned the decision, attacked the Obama Administration for its poor space leadership, and promised an investigation in a written statement.

“I will be joining with [Utah] Senator [Orrin] Hatch, Senator [Mike] Lee as well as the rest of the delegation to further investigate every detail of how NASA arrived at today’s disappointing decision.”

“I want to make sure that there were no political institutions or political considerations that took place in this, that the winning companies did not come from swing states, nor companies that have had prior relationships with this particular administration,” Bishop told KSL-TV in an interview.

Read Bishop’s written statement below.

Rep. Rob Bishop Disappointed by Latest NASA Contract Decision

“I am disappointed and disheartened by the news that NASA has excluded ATK from the companies that were awarded the contract for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. ATK is a proven leader and their track record is beyond exemplary. It was my understanding that ATK’s Liberty proposal ranked very high in technical merit, and was the lowest-risk option.

“I support NASA’s efforts to engage private industry as part of our efforts to develop the next generation of innovate cutting edge space travel and missile defense capabilities.

“America was once recognized globally as the preeminent leader in exploration of the cosmos and it is my hope that one day we can regain that title. Recently, NASA Administration Charlie Bolden said that, ‘I have no desire to do a Mars landing on our own,’ and that ‘The U.S. cannot always be the leader, but we can be the inspiration leader through international cooperation in space exploration.’ Based on these comments I remain concerned that space leadership remains a low priority for this Administration. This is just another example of how this administration has been a total disappointment.

“I will be joining with Senator Hatch, Senator Lee as well as the rest of the delegation to further investigate every detail of how NASA arrived at today’s disappointing decision.”

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  • Geoff T

    How dare the space program refuse our bid to strap astronauts to a proven dangerous and uneconomical technology! How dare NASA recognise that massively ambitious projects may require international co-operation! Sour grapes all round, but hardly surprising when the local politics gets in the way of national policy making.

  • Andy

    This part (in particular) made me smile:

    “I want to make sure that there were no political institutions or political considerations that took place in this, that the winning companies did not come from swing states, nor companies that have had prior relationships with this particular administration.”

  • Andy

    Doug,

    Could you clarify the “Blue Origin didn’t even try. What’s up with that?” choice in the poll?

    In the awards announcement Q & A, one of the reporters asked if Blue Origin submitted a CCiCap proposal and Administrator Bolden him told him to ask in the next brief.

    I’m guessing you tuned in and Blue Origin didn’t submit a CCiCap proposal?

  • Steve

    I have stated on numerous occasions that we have spectacular aerospace engineers in congress. They are not only senators and congressman but also rocket scientists. Just amazing. And that not only includes those mentioned in this article from the great state of Utah but also includes many from Texas, Florida and many other states. I think these folks should also consider the occupation of test pilot. I’d love to see them take a ride strapped on to an ATK solid rocket booster. They may also offer their own power source (hot air).

    On a more serious note, I have family and friends who are residents of Utah and this arrogance, stupidity, and plain old unamerican attitude is not typical in Utah. Hopefully the great residents of Utah can shoot these politians to space via the ballet box soon. And replace them with individuals that are more concerned about America than their next political contribution.

    I wish the best to SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada in opening space as the next frontier to all those that want to explore and exploit the vast resources of our solar system.

  • Steve

    Sorry for the mispelling of “politician”. Maybe I can coin a new word of “politian” meaning a person who is destructive to our nation under the guise of trying to be constructive.

  • http://none Les

    My personal opinion is that ATK’s submission wasn’t even a practical choice.
    It wasn’t like, “they all deserved a slot but there’s now only two and a half slots”. I don’t believe that ATK’s cobbled together “shot at the prize” should have made the grade even if there had still been four awards and that the Utah delegations “investigation” is just a politically theatrical grab for a buck.

  • http://none Les

    P.S.
    On reading “Steve” I’d like to add, and putting this comment in perspective, some of the “shallower” liberals that I know think that I’m so conservative that I’d make Ronald Reagan look liberal:
    I’m embarrassed at the attitudes toward commercial space of people I find myself having to support politically. Especially in something as important as this and the way it’s subordinat(ed) to local politics.
    Not that kind of thing is the province of conservatives: http://www.thereporter.com/ci_21240556/yosemites-lost-valley-be-subject-s-f-vote

  • http://www.parabolicarc.com Doug Messier

    Those submitting proposals included:

    Space Operations
    American Aerospace
    Space Design
    ATK
    Boeing
    Sierra Nevada
    SpaceX

    The first three were disqualified for not meeting minimum bid standards.

    Space Operations is the Huntsville company pushing a modernized version of Gemini. I’m not sure about the other two.

    So, seven submissions, four qualified companies, three slots and NASA went with the ones they had already funded previously whose proposals had hardware that had already flown (Falcon 9, Dragon and Atlas V).

    Meanwhile, ATK’s proposal had a rocket that had never been flight tested in the planned configuration and a capsule that still required a fair amount of work. The proposal might have been funded if it had come along earlier in the CCDev process and gotten funded then. It might have been a case of too little, too late.

    I’m not sure how the Utah delegation hopes to overturn that decision. Especially since it was Congress that limited the funding for commercial crew and the number of awards NASA could give out.

  • http://www.nickolai.me Nickolai_the_Russian_Guy

    The only merit I can see in ATK’s proposal above and beyond the rest is that they have an independent booster system. A problem with the Atlas V could ground both CST-100 and DreamChaser, although not Dragon.

    But having said that, it’s a new, unflown rocket, unlike the other 2, so you have years of development just to get the thing working.

    I thought they made the right calls with the awards and I hope this “investigation” doesn’t get out of hand. I’m looking forward to seeing these companies make progress on their milestones – seeing 3 commercial crew vehicles being developed simultaneously is pretty awesome!

  • Steve

    To Les:

    I think we may be of similar ilk. I am 50 something and conservative. But, as I age, I seem to be more of a libertarian, thinking it is not the role of government to control ones vises as long as they do not directly impact others. Those vises should be under the influence of ones own morals and ones own relationship with the entity more powerful than themselves (not the government).

    Back to the topic at hand. The CCiCAP program is the ignition that will light the fuse to a potential explosion of ingenuity to attain sustainability in space access.

    Why the Republican Party is not a big supporter of this is truly a mystery. And, if this mystery remains, I may remove my lifelong party affiliation. I do not know who these people are anymore. Why worry about the vises of citizens that do not affect others. They should worry about making this country great again and in a way that is sustainable. So another Apollo program is not what is needed.

    The work that will be achieved via the CCiCAP program is a significant step in the right direction. Bravo to NASA. Congratulations to Michael Griffin who started this train (even though he may have gone off the deep end recently). And, I especially give a huge round of applause for companies like SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, and even Boeing, for willing to do business in this manner rather than letting us tax payers take all the risk by only doing cost plus contracts.

  • Greg Holden

    As a brit I have often puzzled over what appears, to me, to be the Republicans fighting to keep a Government jobs program in the space sector, and the Democrats vying to change this status quo and open the final frontier to the free market; while all along, I watch Republicans draw breath in horror at the introduction of universal healthcare, bemoaning how expensive this is and socialist… I totally appreciate that I’m looking at this from an outsiders perspective, but I just say it because I have genuinely puzzled over this oddity in US space politics.

  • Greg Holden

    Great choice by the CCiCAP team btw. Plenty of capability and diversity in design from the 3 chosen. As for ATK, I’m sure they will push on without funding; they seem confident in their design. And they already have the contract for the 5 segment boosters for SLS in the bag, so all is not lost really is it?… :-)

  • http://none Les

    To Steve:
    Yes, we may be.
    I’ve got you by a half dozen years, though recently I’ve grown younger… following the adventures of the New Space entrepreneurs.
    If it weren’t for a couple of issues which make the Democratic leadership a nest of monsters to my moral senses, I’d have sacrificed my other issues with them in support of the clearly more open mindedness to investing in “exploration” of democrats in general. But to qualify that statement; While much of the population who supports this does lean democratic, the leadership pretty much only gives it a little more than the the other side of the aisle except in rhetoric.
    So, I throw my wholehearted support behind “private space”, hoping that the Republicans don’t kill it over politics or “Banker Think” and the Democrats don’t kill it with socialism or an acceptance, while in power, of anything remotely resembling the 1979 Moon Treaty.