America's 4 Rocket Companies Compete for High-Stakes Air Force Contract

[Disir]

Were you shocked in June when SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force for awarding its rivals more than $2 billion worth of rocket development contracts and giving SpaceX nothing?

Were you amazed that SpaceX had seemingly turned on one of its biggest customers? You shouldn't have been. After all, SpaceX has done this before.


And now, it's time to really hold onto your seats folks, because this next news is truly jaw-dropping:

SpaceX's space-faring rivals have just begun filing lawsuits ... over contracts that haven't even been awarded yet.
America's 4 Rocket Companies Compete for High-Stakes Air Force Contract

This is nuts.

 

[Oddball]

DoD is one of the biggest crony corporatist honey pots out there...Not surprising at all.

 

[william the wie]

Actually the OP is understated in a whole bunch of ways Virgin Galacta is a scaled down version of the original design Paul Simon funded and it can be upscaled back

There is a Russian system licensed to a US company. the original design of the space shuttle was never built because the projected revenues from space industry were greatly understated and there a whole bunch of other marginable but useable systems. And there are several aerospace companies not mentioned by your source. Estimated GDP from Space industrialization is in the $10-20 T per year and greater than 41% annualized growthrate of contribution margin.

 

[Shrimpbox]

Stay with it D good stuff. I have to say that after watching a bunch of space X videos, I think the only thing holding these guys back will be funding. They seem so far ahead of anyone else. I guess they can deliver payloads so cheaply that will be a good source of income. I fully expect them to be on the moon way before the govt. I say unleash the private sector and let them go. Musk seems to have no problem raising all the money he needs for Tesla, Space X should be the same deal. The woman running this company is a gem, she may be the real Henry ford of space conquest.

 

[Dekster]

Stay with it D good stuff. I have to say that after watching a bunch of space X videos, I think the only thing holding these guys back will be funding. They seem so far ahead of anyone else. I guess they can deliver payloads so cheaply that will be a good source of income. I fully expect them to be on the moon way before the govt. I say unleash the private sector and let them go. Musk seems to have no problem raising all the money he needs for Tesla, Space X should be the same deal. The woman running this company is a gem, she may be the real Henry ford of space conquest.

Isn't that what is being missed here---they don't need developmental funding if they have already developed? The contract is to inject long-term competition into the eventual bidding process, not the final step.

 

[william the wie]

Stay with it D good stuff. I have to say that after watching a bunch of space X videos, I think the only thing holding these guys back will be funding. They seem so far ahead of anyone else. I guess they can deliver payloads so cheaply that will be a good source of income. I fully expect them to be on the moon way before the govt. I say unleash the private sector and let them go. Musk seems to have no problem raising all the money he needs for Tesla, Space X should be the same deal. The woman running this company is a gem, she may be the real Henry ford of space conquest.

Isn't that what is being missed here---they don't need developmental funding if they have already developed? The contract is to inject long-term competition into the eventual bidding process, not the final step.

there is also a conflict between DOT and DOD that is not being addressed competently.

 

[Dekster]

Stay with it D good stuff. I have to say that after watching a bunch of space X videos, I think the only thing holding these guys back will be funding. They seem so far ahead of anyone else. I guess they can deliver payloads so cheaply that will be a good source of income. I fully expect them to be on the moon way before the govt. I say unleash the private sector and let them go. Musk seems to have no problem raising all the money he needs for Tesla, Space X should be the same deal. The woman running this company is a gem, she may be the real Henry ford of space conquest.

Isn't that what is being missed here---they don't need developmental funding if they have already developed? The contract is to inject long-term competition into the eventual bidding process, not the final step.

there is also a conflict between DOT and DOD that is not being addressed competently.

Not sure what this conflict you are referencing is. It is not new, however, for the DoD to waste a lot of money on keeping contractors in business under the maintaining competition guise when everybody knew full well who was going to get the final contract from the get.

 

[Picaro]

Every country subsidizes ts defense industry, as they should. You can't spring them up overnight on a moment's notice, especially with the system we have now, and we in fact need to bring a lot more of it home, especially the electronics and ship building.