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Contracting Complaints Put the United States' Manned Spacecraft Program on Hold

Sierra Nevada, the company behind the proposed Dream Chaser, isn't happy about losing its NASA contract to SpaceX.

A couple of weeks ago, NASA announced the selection of Boeing and SpaceX to develop the next generation of American manned spacecraft. The former's CTS-100 and the latter's Dragon were awarded $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion respectively. Sierra Nevada, the third company that has been working towards and vying for the same funding, was overlooked in the selection, and now the aerospace technology firm is filing a legal challenge against NASA and striking out on its own.

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When NASA announced it would be funding Boeing and SpaceX to develop its new spacecraft, the agency was scant on the details. What it did say was that both companies, along with Sierra Nevada, submitted separate proposals for the Commercial Crew Transportation Program. While all three met the criteria laid out in the request for proposal, the selection committee felt it was in NASA's best interest to fund the two capsule-style designs.

NASA didn't publicly elaborate on the decision-making process, but Sierra Nevada feels it should. SNC argues that there are enough inconsistencies in the agency's Source Selection Statement and debrief to merit revisiting the selection process. Revisiting means filing a legal challenge that NASA can't ignore.

Sierra Nevada's main problem comes down to cost, something everyone would like to see lowered where access to low Earth orbit is concerned. The company says that NASA's request for proposals prioritized price as one of the main criteria for scoring each; the importance of a system's cost was on par with the combined value of mission suitability and past performance.

SNC's in-development Dream Chaser is a lifting body, a blunt vehicle with flicked-up wings. It's pilotable, can land on a runway, preserves space shuttle heritage, and ultimately offers the technological flexibility to see innovation in the future. The spacecraft also came with the second lowest price tag of all the systems NASA was considering for the contract. The overall cost of the Dream Chaser program, says Sierra Nevada, is actually lower than what the agency will pay with the contracts it just awarded to SpaceX and Boeing.

Completed Dream Chaser in 2012 Image: Jason Hayes/Flickr

Sierra Nevada feels an inquiry into NASA's decision making process is only fair to the employees and industry partners who have been working to get the spacecraft into orbit. For the moment, NASA has directed Boeing and SpaceX to stop working under the new contracts while it prepares a response to Sierra Nevada's challenge.

In the mean time, Sierra Nevada isn't sitting idly by. The Nevada-based company announced this week that it will develop a new version of the Dream Chaser to work with the Stratolaunch system. Stratolaunch is a massive, 385 foot long, six engine, jet built from pieces of two 747s that will serve as a launch platform for spacecraft, lowering the amount of force needed to get it into orbit. Launched with Stratolaunch, Sierra Nevada says this modified Dream Chaser could carry three people into space.

The Government Accountability Office will be reviewing Sierra Nevada's complaint, and has until Jan. 5, 2015, to come up with a response. Until then, it looks like the dream of having an American-based launch system again will remain in a holding pattern.