WASHINGTON -- When choosing among three firms
to haul vital supplies to the international space station, NASA's space
operations chief faced an unexpected dilemma: whether to make just one contract
award to the clear frontrunner, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), or award a second contract to another finalist
that happened to have the highest price and lowest score.
SpaceX
was the clear winner because it offered the best technical proposal and the
lowest overall price, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, Bill
Gerstenmaier, wrote in a NASA source selection
document obtained by Space News. The choice between Dulles, Va.-based Orbital
Sciences Corp. and PlanetSpace of Chicago required
more deliberation.
"I believed
my decision was whether I should make one award or two awards," Gerstenmaier wrote. "Although I consider SpaceX a clear choice, I deemed it extremely important to
the success of the [space station] program to select multiple suppliers to
maximize the probability of [space station] resupply
after retirement of the space shuttle."
All three
companies were vying for contracts potentially worth $3.1 billion. On Dec. 23
NASA announced the selection of SpaceX to provide 12
flights valued at $1.6 billion and Orbital Sciences to provide eight flights
for about $1.9 billion. Both companies already have received NASA seed money to
build new vehicles and conduct resupply demonstration
flights under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
The source
selection document outlines Gerstenmaier's decision
to go with Orbital Sciences even though its proposal received the lowest score
of the three finalists and charged the highest price. The proposal from
start-up PlanetSpace, Gerstenmaier
said, relied too heavily on subcontractors Boeing Co. of Chicago, Denver-based
Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Minneapolis-based Alliant
Techsystems and did not present a backup plan in the
event one of the subcontractors was unable to deliver.
"I
concluded the proposal from Orbital was superior due to the serious management
risks inherent in the PlanetSpace proposal; however I
recognized PlanetSpace had a lower overall price than
the Orbital proposal," Gerstenmaier wrote. "I had
reservations with regard to PlanetSpace's ability to
successfully address the technical challenges associated with its proposal
given the risks I identified in its management approach. ... I believed there was
a low likelihood PlanetSpace could successfully
perform the contract."
PlanetSpace
proposed using an existing rocket to provide initial cargo delivery capability
in December 2011 before switching to the Athena 3 solid-fueled rocket Alliant Techsystems would build
to support a full range of cargo services starting in late 2013.
"PlanetSpace was the only offeror
that proposed a configuration requiring verification and integration of its
orbital vehicle with two launch vehicles to meet the requirements of [the
commercial resupply services program], which
potentially increases the technical and schedule risk to NASA," Gerstenmaier wrote.
While the PlanetSpace team of subcontractors had a solid record of
past performance with NASA and Defense Department contracts, Gerstenmaier said he could not give PlanetSpace
itself a positive or negative score on its ability to manage fixed-priced
contracts or subcontractors because it lacked the experience.
Meanwhile,
Orbital Sciences said it could offer the full range of services by mid-2012 and
offered a December 2010 "early bird" flight, which would double as a promised
COTS demonstration flight. Gerstenmaier said that
earlier delivery date, coupled with Orbital's
experience managing subcontractors and fixed-price spacecraft development,
operations and production, gave Orbital the edge for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract despite its higher price.
The resupply services plan calls for SpaceX
and Orbital Sciences to haul 20 tons of cargo to the space station through
2016. SpaceX plans to launch its Dragon spacecraft
atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
while Orbital Sciences is developing its Cygnus vehicle to fly atop its planned
Taurus 2 booster from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern coast of Virginia.
NASA has
been seeking commercial U.S. cargo delivery services to the
space station to reduce reliance on its international partners during the
anticipated five-year gap between the 2010 retirement of its aging space
shuttles and the first operational flights of their successor, the Orion Crew
Exploration Vehicle.
None of the
new rockets proposed under the Commercial Resupply
Services program have yet flown. Of the three bidders, SpaceX
is the closest to launch. The first Falcon 9, due to launch early this year for
a U.S. government customer SpaceX says it is not at liberty to identify, is at Cape Canaveral and, as of Dec. 30, fully
assembled. The rocket is expected to be erected on the pad in the weeks ahead.
Orbital,
meanwhile, recently reached an agreement with NASA's Stennis Space Center to begin testing the Taurus 2's
AJ-26 engines at the Mississippi field center by late 2009 in preparation for the rocket's
initial launch in December 2010.
Both
companies are in line to receive two initial Commercial Resupply
Services payments before conducting their first COTS demonstration flights.
NASA spokesman Mike Curie said a formal schedule for payments would be
finalized in February.
Gerstenmaier said it is vital that SpaceX and Orbital come
through with their cargo launch and return pledges to support the space
station's full, six-person crews in the future. Ultimately, the companies are
expected to provide between 40 percent and 70 percent of NASA's space station
cargo each year.
"This is a
contract that we really need to keep space station flying, and to service space
station," Gerstenmaier told reporters in a Dec. 23
teleconference. "We really need these guys to deliver."
Staff
writers Tariq Malik and
Turner Brinton contributed to this article.
