Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is suing the Air Force in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to compel the service to compete its massive sole sourced, non-competed award of national security space launches to United Launch Alliance
(ULA), SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said Friday.
SpaceX is on the verge of being certified as new entrant for the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, which assures the federal government access to space. Musk told reporters SpaceX is the only company on the lawsuit right now, but that others may join.
Musk said SpaceX doesn’t want the 36 launch “cores” previously awarded to ULA to be awarded to SpaceX, but that the company just wants the chance to compete for missions it is capable of handling, such as what the Air Force calls “lighter” payloads like Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. Air Force brass has also cited another slot of EELV launches as “heavy” launches, ones that lift larger payloads like spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). SpaceX would like to do those in the future with its Falcon Heavy rocket, but as of now, it is in the process of certifying for only “lighter” launches with Falcon 9v1.1.
“If we lose, that’s fine,” Musk said during a press conference at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. “But why would they not be even competed?”
SpaceX’s argument centers on the Air Force’s certification process for new entrants as it has been working toward competing for EELV missions as part of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) signed with the Air Force. SpaceX must meet rigorous certification requirements and perform at least three successful flights of a common launch vehicle configuration for the company to be considered for launching national security missions. The Air Force said in late February the company’s Sept. 29 launch of its Falcon 9v1.1 launch vehicle would count toward EELV certification. The service is still assessing Dec. 3 and Jan. 6 launches for certification (Defense Daily, March 18).
Musk said the certification process has been “a paperwork exercise” so far as the company has made “zero changes” to Falcon 9v1.1. Musk also accused “a handful” of Air Force procurement officials of changing certification criteria on the fly.
“First of all, we’re not battling the whole Air Force,” Musk said. “We’re on very good terms with the vast majority of the Air Force. Our concern really relates to a handful of people in the procurement area of the USAF.”
ULA spokesman Mark Bitterman said Friday the Defense Department’s acquisition and oversight processes, along with improved ULA performance, enabled over $4 billion in savings as compared to prior acquisition approaches. Bitterman said ULA recognizes DoD’s plan to enable competition and is ready, and willing, to support missions with the same mission assurance it provides today. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA]. The Air Force declined comment Friday.
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall in late 2012 authorized the Air Force to no-compete a “block buy” of 36 cores to ULA over a span of five years while competing up to 14 cores to other companies. Kendall’s memo said, at the time, the Air Force could sole-source those 14 cores to ULA if competition was not viable at the time of need (Defense Daily; Dec. 6, 2012).
Since that memorandum, the Air Force has decreased from 14 to seven, but possibly eight, the number of launches it plans to compete during fiscal years 2015 and 2017, citing a reduced need for launches due to extended health of its Global Positioning System (GPS) fleet of satellites. The Air Force insists it still plans on competing these launches, just later than originally planned (Defense Daily, April 2).
This decision upset pro-competition lawmakers who want to ensure the Air Force competes national security space launches to help drive down costs. One of those lawmakers, Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D) Chairman Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), said in a March hearing he’d help ensure the Air Force is not reducing competition for EELV but rather delaying. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) member Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) also vowed a legislative effort to ensure the Air Force competed its EELV missions.
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation Ranking Minority Member and Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) member John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a Friday letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah James the Air Force’s explanation for decreasing the number of competed EELV missions were “specious.” McCain said the Air Force’s explanation as the non-competed launches as “heavier” were unfounded because the service didn’t announce which missions would be flown as part of the block buy.
Also, McCain said, while no potential prospective new bidder has been certified, at least one potential new entrant has been qualified to bid for the balance of launches. He cites a Jan. 24 Kendall letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) saying DoD will allow new entrants to compete for launch contract awards as soon as the new entrant delivers the data from their final certification launch. A SpaceX spokeswoman said the company’s final certification launch was Jan. 13.
McCain said while formal certification may require the Air Force’s full review of a new entrant’s data, its submitting data after its final qualifying launch is all that is needed to allow it to compete for launch contracts.
“Your assertion that no new entrant is qualified to perform ‘heavier’ launches is misleading and possibly false,” McCain said.