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SpaceX, U.S. Air Force To Enter Mediation over $11 billion ULA Block Buy
In a Jan. 13 order, Judge Susan Braden denied ULAs motion to dismiss and said SpaceX and the Air Force would begin mediation this month.The order also said the Air Force has told the court it would not make a final decision on certain launch contract awards until later in 2015. The names of the missions and the target date for the contract awards were redacted in the court documents. One pending contract, the award of which industry sources recently said was imminent, is to launch a satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX and ULA of Denver bid for the contract in August, but SpaceX must win Air Force certification to launch national security missions before it can be eligible to win. That certification, until recently expected by the end of 2014, now is anticipated by mid-2015. The delay has led to speculation that ULA would win the contract by default. The Air Force has advised the court that it will not make a final decision about the [REDACTED] missions until [REDACTED], 2015, the order said. In addition, the Air Force will also make another mission available for competition in the near future, the court documents said. The name of that mission was also redacted. I suspect part of the judge's gag order on this has been lowered. Go to Bloomburg and listen to Musk's interview. I doubt he would have dared to give it will a full gag order in place. He even tells a story about the judge telling the Justice Dept lawyer that he was representing the American People and not a representative of Boeing/LockMart/ULA! He took it further and announced a mass production factor to make lots of sats in Seattle. There would be offices in this building for Seattle rocket workers (as compared to the sat workers) who didn't want to move to LA. and yes he had hired people away from Boeing and Lockmart and would continue to do so. He would NOT hire AirForce Procurement Officers who worked on contracts he bid on. He could afford to enter the satellite business as he would be using current tech and launching prototypes on his SpaceX reused rockets to verify new satellite ideas. Posted by: 3dc 2015-01-14 |
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