Billionaires Battle Over Launch Site
Launch Pad 39A with the space shuttle Endeavour. (Credit: NASA)
The Orlando Sentinel has an update on the battle to control mothballed space shuttle Launch Complex 39A. In a dream match up made in NewSpace heaven, the battle pits billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX against fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, whose bid is supported by United Launch Alliance (ULA), which has made billions launching U.S. defense satellites.
Musk wants the pad all to himself to launch astronauts to the International Space Station should his company win the ongoing NASA competition to do so.
Bezos is pushing for a multi-use facility from which several companies could launch rockets, saying this arrangement would make better use of the asset and save money in the long run through cost sharing.
There’s some additional tidbits of news in the story:
Sources on Capitol Hill and within NASA said Blue Origin’s protests forced the space agency to announce a competition for the pad in May. The dispute also has drawn the attention of two members of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
In a July 22 letter to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, U.S. Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said “NASA appears to be racing to lease LC-39A” and urged a closer review.
“Given that taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions, if not a billion dollars, to develop this launch complex, there are serious questions of fiscal responsibility and transparency,” they wrote.
It’s rather heartwarming that our elected officials are so concerned about “fiscal responsibility and transparency.” It’s rather a shame that their willingness to raise “serious questions” doesn’t extend to uber-expensive programs like the Space Launch System. But, what are you going to do about it?
All cynicism aside, Wolf and Aderholt actually did NASA a favor here. They’ve got two billionaires bidding to operate am asset. Every government agency should have such problems. This is a great bargaining position to be in. They’ll be able to extract very favorable terms if they play their hand right.
7 responses to “Billionaires Battle Over Launch Site”
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At the DC-X conference some people (not ones who would be in the know) claimed that Blue is essentially trying to get the pad “so they can lease it to SpaceX”!
He’s going to get all of the SLS assets and 39A at the inevitable fire sale.
NASA might have provisions in the agreement to prevent such things. They’re also going to want to see that Blue Origin (or ULA) has a plan to use the launch pad in some reasonable amount of time. If it’s just Blue Origin and they say they’re flying in five years and NASA looks at the plan and they think it’s closer to 10, it would probably be a safer bet to go with SpaceX.
I know that Blue Origin is very tight-lipped about their operations, but is it fair to judge that Blue Origin is working on something big (that would require a facilities of that size ) comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy?
I’m trying to understand ULA’s motivation for supporting Bezos. It seems like they’d be apathetic about getting LC-39A since they already have LC-41 for Atlas and LC-37 for Delta.
More options is always better, right? Other thoughts: 1) If Bezos gets it, that means Musk doesn’t. Win for ULA. 2) If Bezos gets it and builds it to support ULA’s launchers on his dime, win for ULA. 3) If Bezos gets it and for some reason fails to support ULA’s launchers, no loss to ULA. So why not support him?
More evidence that Bezos is all about the oink oink oink and less about space exploration. Why is his firm even in this race?! ULA trying to cling onto status quo. Better let SpaceX win this round.