Plus: NASA 'dodged a bullet,' Isaacman said
By Dan Robitzski
Tracking contracts, and covering who's getting money from where is an important part of what SpaceNews reporters do. This week, I was struck by a story that talked not only about who was getting money, but also who was unhappy about it.
NASA recently awarded Blue Origin a $700 million contract to build the Mars Telecommunications Network, a spacecraft that would orbit Mars and relay communications to and from other spacecraft there, and Rocket Lab is displeased.
That company, which along with Blue Origin publicly vied for the contract, filed a complaint with the U.S. Government Accountability Office — a mechanism that rarely results in contracts being reversed but does freeze work on the project until GAO issues a ruling and NASA then Rocket Lab respond. That ruling is due in late December, 100 days after the complaint was filed. Meanwhile, the spacecraft is required to be ready for launch by the end of 2028.
As SpaceNews' Jeff Foust reported, Rocket Lab "said it filed the protest because it felt NASA’s decision was 'inconsistent with the eligibility criteria' for MTN set by Congress when it funded the mission in a July 2025 budget reconciliation bill. The company also cited a 'punitive review' of its own proposal by NASA that made what it alleged were 'incorrect assertions and conclusions.'"
Rocket Lab did not elaborate on how it felt NASA violeted procurement regulations.
But speaking at the Sept. 24 Off World conference, Rocket Lab Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice said that "When you believe you’re bringing the best value proposition to your government customer or the taxpayer, you want to make sure your voice is heard. Sometimes, when you don’t think you’ve been heard properly, you just find the channel to go make that happen.”
Rocket Lab has a history of working with NASA on interplanetary missions. But at the same time, Spice downplayed the value of NASA contracts for the company. He said that funding from NASA contracts "really doesn't move the needle financially and certainly isn’t a big swing factor in how we look at the business three, four, five years out.”
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SIGNIFICANT DIGIT
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$85M |
The amount the Pentagon will pay Parsons to help manage the development and construction of U.S. Space Command’s new headquarters in Alabama.
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'DODGED A BULLET'
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NASA "dodged a bullet" when China decided to delay its Chang’e-7 mission to the moon's south pole, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sept. 23 at the Off World conference in Houston.
The statement is a big concession from NASA leadership that China's moon missions, had they kept to their original schedule, would have posed a serious problem for America's own plans for moon exploration and eventual settlement.
“They are targeting the exact same location at the lunar south pole,” Isaacman said of China.
As SpaceNews' Jeff Foust reports, Isaacman has grown increasingly adamant that the United States should prioritize getting astronauts to the moon before China does sometime around 2030. Isaacman said that if Chang’e-7 had launched as planned and landed at Shackleton crater, a prime site for lunar operations thought to contain usable water ice, it “could have potentially denied access to some of the most interesting spots.”
To correct the metaphor, NASA's lucky break didn't have anything to do with dodging something so much as China misfired. Weather troubles interrupted Chang'e-7's narrow launch window, giving NASA more time to launch a mission first and, as Isaacman posed the stakes of that race, cement America's global leadership in space.
"If you come up short with who comes down the ladder first, the impact is felt around the world," he said. |
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The U.S. Space Force is pushing back a planned procurement of commercial communications services from maneuverable satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
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The European Space Agency has selected companies to lead preliminary studies into European space stations.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Where do space investors see the biggest opportunities? SpaceNews has mapped the ranks of private space firms valued at $1 billion or more, capturing 37 companies working in launch and satellite broadband, Earth observation, space stations, orbital data centers and other promising markets. Drawing on public disclosures, original reporting and other sources, each profile tracks when and how a company achieved unicorn status and its latest known valuation, alongside funding-round breakdowns and total capital raised from BryceTech’s Startup Space database. Download the report. |
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