Connect with us

News

SpaceX’s NASA Starship contract safe for now as Blue Origin looks to Congress

SpaceX's NASA HLS contract is safe (for now) but major uncertainty still remains. (SpaceX/NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal)

Published

4 years ago

on

Fresh off of a major contract loss during a competition to build NASA’s next crewed Moon lander, Blue Origin has begun aggressively lobbying Congress for the contract NASA didn’t give it.

Thankfully, albeit not at first, a modification has been made to an amendment first proposed by a Senator that has long pursued favorable treatment of Blue Origin that will prevent that legislation – if it passes – from unfairly interrupting the $2.9 billion contract NASA already awarded SpaceX. Announced on April 16th, that award came as a shock, effectively cementing SpaceX’s lunar Starship as both the cheapest and most technically sound proposal to return humanity to the Moon.

As such, although NASA made it clear that it would have selected two of the three competing proposals in a perfect scenario, Congress allocated just a quarter of the Human Landing System (HLS) funding NASA requested, forcing the agency between a rock and a hard place.

NASA repeatedly stated as much both before and after the decision was announced, effectively implying that the agency had learned its lesson with the Commercial Crew Program, in which it had selected two redundant providers – Boeing and SpaceX – only for Congress to systematically underfund the program for years. As a direct result of years of underfunding during an early and formative period, both providers suffered at least 2-3 years of delays, followed by another few years of more organic delays as development matured and new challenges were unsurprisingly uncovered.

Politically, NASA could never say that – effectively biting the hand that (under)feeds – out loud, but it was strongly implied in an official HLS source selection statement released to partially explain why it had chosen SpaceX and SpaceX alone. Almost instantly, both losing competitors – Blue Origin and Dynetics – filed protests with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) filled with far more bizarre, rambling tangents than coherent legal arguments.

Advertisement
SpaceX’s upgraded Starship set for test flight despite sore NASA contract losers

Unless GAO operates on a different standard than the court of law or uncovers something nefarious behind closed doors, a close reading of both partially redacted protests does not bode well for either document’s ability to sway the office’s opinion. Almost as if Blue Origin itself is aware of just how frivolous its protest really is, the company – seemingly backed by partners Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Leidos – wasted no time lobbying Senator Maria Cantwell for an alternate avenue to get what it wants and the government money founder Jeff Bezos feels entitled to.

Cantwell represents Washington State, where both Amazon and Blue Origin are headquartered, and has frequently spoken out in support of – or personally introduced – legislation that would specifically favor Bezos’ space company. On May 12th, Cantwell introduced an amendment that would purportedly “maintain competitiveness” by forcing NASA to select a second HLS winner in addition to SpaceX. Without irony, the authorization bill also demanded that NASA make that decision within a mere 30 days.

Under those conditions, Congress would authorize $10 billion for NASA to develop and demonstrate two landers with an uncrewed and crewed Moon landing each – the original plan. Insultingly, Cantwell tacked that amendment onto an authorization bill, meaning that even if Congress were to pass the bill and the President were to sign it into law, Congress would still have to actually allocate that $10 billion in the form of a more than 10% boost to NASA’s annual budget. Historically, even if Congress were to defy all recent precedent and significantly boost NASA’s 2022 budget, there is no guarantee that that raise would be upheld for four or more years, which it would need to be for the authorization bill to be anything more than a hollow promise.

More recently, a clause was thankfully added clarifying that NASA is not allowed to “modify, terminate, or rescind” SpaceX’s HLS contract to comply with the amendment. Additionally, while still amounting to a legal gun to NASA’s head to force it to into a contract it knows it cant afford, the modification gives NASA 60 days to award a second lander contract. Based on the agency’s own selection statement, Blue Origin’s National Team would almost certainly be the recipient in the event that the bill becomes law, forcing NASA to commit more than $9 billion – instead of $2.9 billion – to the next stage of HLS development with no guarantee that its budget will be raised accordingly.

In the meantime, GAO still has to complete its reviews of Blue Origin and Dynetic’s protests and the White House has to submit its FY2022 budget request and consider adding NASA funding to its proposed jobs and infrastructure package.

Advertisement
Related Topics:

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk roasts owners of this car brand after another Tesla vandalism incident

Published

3 hours ago

on

March 16, 2025

By

Elon Musk roasted owners of one specific car brand after yet another incident of a Tesla being vandalized, this time in New York.

Tesla owners have had a bit of a target on their backs in recent months as Musk, CEO of the company, has joined forces with U.S. President Donald Trump in an effort to eliminate excessive and unneeded government spending in the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Due to Musk’s bold personality and unfiltered political beliefs, he has gained plenty of critics in the last few months. Tesla owners are being targeted as a result, seeing their vehicles be vandalized on nearly a daily basis.

Tesla-owned showrooms across the country have also been the target of some attacks, as one was even damaged in a series of shootings, another lit on fire by a Molotov cocktail.

Nevertheless, Musk has continued to stand firm on his beliefs, and Tesla drivers are getting fed up with the amount of damage being done to their cars. In this particular instance, someone drew a swastika on the side of a New York City Tesla Cybertruck owner. He was able to confront the person who drew the offensive logo, an exchange that was caught on camera:

The video was shared on X, which grabbed the attention of Musk, who was sure to criticize the make of the assailant’s vehicle: a Subaru.

Musk said:

“Crazy people. Naturally, he drives a Subaru …”

The playful jab at Subaru drivers likely comes from the stereotype that those vehicles are usually driven by people with intense political and social beliefs. Facetious posts on Reddit claim that Subarus won’t operate without at least ten bumper stickers on them. Subaru’s past marketing and advertising campaigns have attracted those who are “outdoorsy,” Google’s AI description of the drivers states.

Musk has never held back and never will. In an interview with MSNBC, he said he will speak his mind and if his companies lose money because of it, “so be it.” One thing is for sure, Musk is not going to shy away from speaking or posting how he pleases.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla stores continue to face anti-Musk protests

Scenes from a protest outside of Tesla’s store in Loveland, Colorado.

Published

17 hours ago

on

March 15, 2025

By

Tesla stores have been the target of widespread protests and vandalism in recent weeks, after Elon Musk made a controversial gesture in January, and as he and the Trump administration’s newly created government efficiency division continues to gut federal agencies.

On Saturday, I went to the Tesla store in Loveland, Colorado, where demonstrators were already protesting upon my arrival at roughly 12:45 p.m. MT.  Walking up to the protest, I could see scattered groups of demonstrators lined up along about two blocks, spanning from the Tesla store to a nearby intersection and Sprouts location. One protestor said he had counted about 230 people at around 1:00 p.m. MT.

The protest felt generally peaceful, with cars driving by and honking, and demonstrators leaving a large space between the front of the Tesla store and the sidewalk, easily allowing workers and customers to go in and out.

You can see a few videos and photos from the site below, along with some of the responses I got from protestors and a prospective customer.

READ MORE ON TESLA PROTESTS AND VANDALISM:

I spoke to about a dozen protestors about what they were protesting against. Most said they were there to condemn Musk’s recent federal worker and program cuts with the Trump administration, his performance of what some said resembled a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration ceremony in January, or the administration’s recent attacks against transgender and queer individuals.

One protestor, Elsa, identified as a former Republican and said she was “highly concerned that our Constitution is being ignored,” especially with regards to the three branches of government and the system of checks and balances.

“It surprises me that, even if you voted for Trump, or you believe in capitalism, which, I didn’t vote for Trump, but I do believe in capitalism — I’m a former Republican, I was a Republican for most of my life — but it’s dangerous to have power rest in a handful of ultra-wealthy people,” Elsa said.

“And our whole country needs to realize that,” she adds. “This to me is not even Republican or Democrat at this point.”

Instead, she says it now comes down to whether people want to give billionaires huge tax breaks, or to use that money to support a range of groups in the U.S., including those who have social security benefits, are veterans, or are 9/11 survivors seeking cancer treatments, as a few examples.

Another protestor, Mary, said she was taking part in the demonstration “because she loves this country and democracy,” adding that she wanted to help preserve democracy for her grandchildren.

Still another protestor, Bryan, said that they were protesting because of the Trump administration and Musk’s attempts to erase transgender, non-binary, and queer people from history, drawing comparisons to the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany, where early human rights violations were lodged against gay and queer communities.

“I’m here because I have to be,” Bryan said. “I’m afraid of the future.”

Yet another person and his family were holding Ukraine flags, saying that they were protesting for a wide range of reasons, but especially for Trump’s recent meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Musk’s claims that the top Ukrainian executive was to blame for what he has called a “forever war.”

While most protestors appeared to be generally friendly, especially with each other, I did hear a few exchanges between demonstrators and those with other opinions. While I heard more cars honking throughout the experience, seemingly in support of the protests, I also noticed a few from which passengers yelled things like “Go Trump.”

“Direct action, we need to stop these fascists with direct action,” one protestor yelled in response.

Additionally, I also talked to a prospective customer, Kristy, who was there for a test drive and said she had a negative experience with the protestors.

“I was test driving a Tesla, and as we pulled in and parked right here, this black one, these people right here in the middle yelled at me, ‘Hope you’re turning in your f*cking Nazi car,’ and I said ‘F*ck you,’” Kristy explained.

“And they’re like ‘F*ck you too, you’re a Nazi, f*cking Nazi lovers.’ And so, they’re just yelling racial slurs at me, and I’m far from a Nazi.”

Tesla store advisers declined to comment on the protests, and so did Loveland police.

Other Saturday protest footage from Tesla stores in California, Texas, and New York

The Loveland Tesla store has also been the site of repeated attacks in recent weeks, with authorities on Friday making a second arrest following multiple incidents. You can see the Department’s press release for the arrest below.

The protest was also part of widespread demonstrations on Saturday, and it’s just the latest in actions targeting Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company, some of which have included acts of vandalism, graffiti, arson, and even the use of weapons on Tesla storefronts.

Multiple other protests were also captured in footage on Saturday, including one in Santa Rosa, California, as shared by the San Francisco Chronicle, and another attended by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in Austin, Texas. Still another was captured in New York City, and you can see footage from each of these protests below.

Tesla vandalism cases under investigation by FBI Seattle

Continue Reading

News

Musk sets a date for Starship trip to Mars with Optimus on board

Optimus could be the first humanoid to make it to Mars, and Musk has set a date for when he thinks it’ll happen.

Published

23 hours ago

on

March 15, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk has shared when he expects to take Starship to Mars for its first uncrewed mission, and he also says Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot will be on board for the flight.

On Friday, Musk wrote on X that SpaceX’s reusable Starship rocket will take Optimus to Mars at the end of 2026, with human landings expected to commence a few years later.

“Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus,” Musk said. “If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.”

Last year, the SpaceX and Tesla head also expectations that SpaceX would be able to begin uncrewed launches in 2016, with early launches including both Optimus and a Cybertruck unit.

Musk also followed up the announcement with a post on X on Saturday morning, noting that he expects SpaceX to launch more than 90 percent of Earth’s payload mass to orbit this year. Meanwhile, he says China will make up just around 5 percent, while the rest of the world, including other parts of America, would also make up just 5 percent.

He also predicted that that number would go up even further to nearly 100 percent, once SpaceX’s reusable rocket is being launched more frequently.

“When Starship is launching at high rate, SpaceX will probably carry >99 percent of Earth’s payload mass to orbit. This is necessary to make Mars a self-sustaining civilization,” Musk added.

READ MORE ABOUT SPACEX’S STARSHIP: Texas awards SpaceX $17.3M grant to expand Bastrop tech hub

To be sure, Musk has been known to make ambitious claims about when his companies’ products would achieve certain milestones. For example, Musk predicted in 2018 that SpaceX could launch a rocket to Mars with humans aboard by 2024, though SpaceX only began testing the company’s reusable Starship in 2023.

Still, the company has been routinely testing Starship since then, and with increasing frequency, and in October, SpaceX performed the first catch of the Starship’s Super Heavy booster after liftoff to demonstrate the concept that a reusable rocket could be possible. In a launch earlier this month, SpaceX again successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster, though it lost the upper stage to a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” effectively meaning that it had exploded in air and showered surrounding areas with rocket parts.

The explosion was the second consecutive launch in which debris from Starship reigned down, highlighting the continued importance of testing as SpaceX aims to make the rocket a viable product for reusable space travel.

On Friday, SpaceX also launched its Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to rescue astronauts that have been stuck on the orbital craft, after a Boeing launch was originally intended to bring them back to Earth. While SpaceX attempted to rescue the two astronauts in September, issues with the Starliner craft’s thrusters discovered upon arrival made NASA hold off on approving the return mission.

SpaceX completes a new first with recent Falcon 9 launch

Continue Reading

Trending