Blue Origin challenges Pentagon's program on satellite launches
Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, on Monday challenged a Pentagon program that would award to just two companies contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to fly national security satellites to space.
In a filing with the Government Accountability Office, Blue Origin said the Air Force“is pursuing a flawed acquisition strategy” that discriminates against new bidders and limits competition. Bez os also owns The Washington Post.
The bid protest is the latest ina string of high-profile fights over the lucrative Pentagon missions. For years, the Defense Department relied on a single company, United Launch Alliance( ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Then, in 2014, Space X filed a lawsuit, saying it should be allowed to compete. Eventually, it settled with the Air Force and has competed for several missions, driving down the price.
Currently, ULA and Space X are the only companies certified to fly national se curi ty missions, though last year Blue Origin, Northrup Grumman and ULA won contracts to develop rockets that meet the Pentagon' s national security launch requirements.
The Pentagon, however, plans next year to choose only two providers in the next round of contracts, sparking Blue Origin's protest, an indication that the company fears it won't be among the winners, in part because the Air Force is allowing bidders to offer a backup rocket. Blue Origin's rocket, known as New Glenn, is not expected to fly until 2021.
“Unless the Air Force changes its approach, this procurement will perpetuate a market duopoly in national security space launch well into the next decade, causing higher launch prices, less assured access to space and a missed opportunity to expand our national security interests and bolster U.S. leadership in space ,” Blue Origin said in a fact sheet given to reporters.
Despite t he protest , Blue Origin said it submitted a bid for the launch contracts.
For months, Blue Origin has been lobbying members of Congress and the Pentagon to slow down the procurement. The company, which is based outside of Seattle, has enlisted the support of Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of t he Armed Services Committee, who earlier this year wrote a letter to the Air Force saying he was concerned it was moving too fast“in a way that risks undermining the Air Force' s goal of maximizing and sustaining fair and open competition.”