Sierra Nevada Corporation: Private Space Company Accuses NASA Of Favoritism
Sierra Nevada Corporation, an American privately held electronic systems provider and systems integrator specializing in micro-satellites, energy, telemedicine, nanotechnology, and commercial orbital transportation services, is irate over two contracts NASA recently awarded to other companies.
In September, NASA bypassed the Sierra Nevada Corporation, instead giving multi-billion dollar contracts to shuttle American astronauts to and from the International Space Station to Space X and Boeing – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s chief rivals.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation released a statement explaining their complaint.
“Dream Chaser design provides a wider range of capabilities and value including preserving the heritage of the space shuttle program through its design as a piloted, reusable, lifting-body spacecraft that embodies the advanced technologies of today and flexibility that enables the innovations of the future.”
The Dream Chaser the statement refers to is the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s transport spacecraft. The SNC Space website describes the Dream Chaser as “a winged, lifting-body spacecraft that provides a flexible, credible, affordable solution for International Space Station (ISS) crew transportation and a viable path to the future of human space flight operations for NASA, international and commercial space applications.”
The Sierra Nevada Corporation is officially protesting the contract awards to Boeing and Space X and will ask for a reevaluation of the contracts by federal officials to ensure all factors were properly taken into account. The Sierra Nevada Corporation says it could offer comparable services for nearly $1 billion less than the awarded contracts to Beoing ($4.2 billion) and SpaceX ($2.6 billion). In a statement to Florida Today, the Sierra Nevada Corporation cited “serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process.”
On the flip side, NASA disagrees with the assessment of the awards. When they awarded the two companies with their contracts earlier this month, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke of NASA’s excitement.
“NASA has set the stage for what promises to be the most ambitious and exciting chapter in the history of human space flight. Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry also will allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission – sending humans to Mars.”
In advance of the awards being granted to Boeing and Space X, NASA widely solicited the private market place, in hopes garnering a broader national interest in the private space flight industry.
As of now, NASA has not released its official explanation of why the Sierra Nevada Corporation was bypassed in the selection process.
images via NASA and Universe Today
