Quartz by Tim Fernholz 8/13/2020
We’ve found something Elon won’t tweet about.
SpaceX won a major coup last week after years of effort—a contract to launch about a dozen spacecraft for the US Space Force in the next five years, worth well north of a billion dollars.
It could be seen as the crowning moment of a very good summer for Elon Musk’s rocket company. Neither SpaceX nor its voluble CEO, however, has had anything to say about it in the six days since the award was announced, unlike other participants in the bid.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, and Northrop Grumman, both of which saw their bids fail, expressed disappointment and confidence in their technologies. United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that won about 19 launches in the contract, took a victory lap.
One reason SpaceX might be silent is that they’re waiting for an official debrief explaining how the decision was reached; as of Aug 11, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said his company hadn’t received one. Neither SpaceX, the Department of Defense nor US Space and Missile Systems Command responded to repeated questions about the status of the debrief.
Another potential reason? SpaceX is still suing the United States over the precursor to this award, and might be inclined to do the same over this decision. In 2018, the US gave the other three competitors, but not SpaceX, some $2.3 billion in funding to develop new launch vehicles ahead of the final selection. SpaceX sued, culminating in a July hearing that has a California federal judge mulling over the final decision.
More:
https://qz.com/emails/space-business/1891261/
