One contractor but couldn't do it on just over 25% of what theyĪdditionally, while still amounting to a legal gun to NASA’s head toįorce it to into a contract it knows it cant afford, the modification In the original story, I mentioned that NASA had requested $3.3 billion in fundingįor this fiscal year to meet the goal of landing humans on the Moon by Only appropriations bills actually provide money to agencies. Authorization bills set policy, they don't provide funding. I rush to add that she can't do that because she can't provide money to NASA. Cantwell added to legislation that NASA was Authorized to add $10 billion for choosing the second contractor. Since NASA was essentially forced to downselect to one contractor by their budget shortfall simply telling them to add a second contractor doesn't make much sense, but it actually gets worse. Without irony, the authorization bill also demanded that NASA make that decision within a mere 30 days, although that was later relaxed to 60 days. “maintain competitiveness” by forcing NASA to select a second HLS winner On May 12th, Cantwell introduced an amendment that would purportedly Cantwell (or leave a horse's head in her bed). Senator from Washington means Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin are both in her district - not to mention Jeff's other little company Amazon - so it's hardly surprising Bezos' crew would try to lobby Sen. The "controversial provision" is an amendment to USIC Act (the first one mentioned) by Sen. The deadline for NASA to comply with a requirement that it choose a Now provides a level of protection for the contract awarded to SpaceXįor the Artemis program’s Human Landing System (HLS).
Last week, but one of the most controversial provisions was modified and That legislation incorporates theĢ021 NASA Authorization Act approved by the Senate Commerce Committee The Senate will take up the United States Innovation and Competition Act today. Bear in mind this paragraph was posted on May 19th. The real headline here is from Space Policy Online, a site that tracks the legislative and developmental sides of those policies. Allegedly said by Otto von Bismarck.Ī followup to the story about Blue Origin and Dynetics suing NASA over awarding the Human Landing System contract exclusively to SpaceX from Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter, Eric Ralph.