The GAO’s decision should free up NASA to proceed on its HLS contract with SpaceX, which had been in limbo since the protests were filed. “We believe healthy competition is necessary to maintain the industrial base required to achieve the important strategic goals of space exploration and national security,” the company stated. In a statement late July 30, Dynetics said that “while disappointed, we respect the GAO’s determination announced today.” The company said it’s continuing to work on its lander design and plans to pursue future opportunities, such as an ongoing NASA competition to provide small amounts of funding for companies who plan to offer landers for future missions. “We’ll continue to advocate for two immediate providers as we believe it is the right solution.” “We stand firm in our belief that there were fundamental issues with NASA’s decision, but the GAO wasn’t able to address them due to their limited jurisdiction,” a Blue Origin spokesperson said in a statement to SpaceNews. It argued that NASA should have revised the HLS competition, or canceled it, when realized the anticipated level of funding would not be available. “Dynetics has issues and concerns with several aspects of the acquisition process as well as elements of NASA’s technical evaluation and filed a protest with the GAO to address them,” Dynetics said in a statement in April when it filed its separate protest. “NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute,” Blue Origin said in April when it filed the protest, complaining that, among other issues, it was not given an opportunity to revise its proposal. Later lander missions will be open to SpaceX and other companies through a separate competition. “Despite this finding, the decision also concludes that the protesters could not establish any reasonable possibility of competitive prejudice arising from this limited discrepancy in the evaluation,” Patton concluded.īlue Origin and Dynetics filed protests April 26, 10 days after NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a crewed lunar lander, based on the company’s Starship vehicle, and perform a demonstration mission. The GAO did agree with the companies that NASA waived a “mandatory solicitation requirement” for SpaceX. ![]() “GAO next concluded that the evaluation of all three proposals was reasonable, and consistent with applicable procurement law, regulation, and the announcement’s terms,” he said in the statement. The GAO also denied claims Blue Origin and Dynetics made that NASA improperly evaluated the two companies’ proposals. “As a result, GAO denied the protest arguments that NASA acted improperly in making a single award to SpaceX.” “GAO further concluded there was no requirement for NASA to engage in discussions, amend, or cancel the announcement as a result of the amount of funding available for the program,” Patton said. The agency made clear in the competition that awards were contingent on available funding, and reserved the right to make a single award, or none at all. Patton, managing associate general counsel for procurement law at the GAO, said in the statement. ![]() ![]() “In denying the protests, GAO first concluded that NASA did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award,” Kenneth E. In a statement, the GAO said that NASA did not violate procurement law when it decided to make a single Human Landing System (HLS) award to SpaceX in April after previously stating its intent to make two such awards. Government Accountability Office denied protests July 30 that Blue Origin and Dynetics filed of NASA’s award of a single lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |