The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday denied Sierra Nevada Corp.’s (SNC) protest of NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract (CCtCap) awards to Boeing [BA] and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX).
GAO said in a statement SNC argued that NASA’s evaluation departed from the solicitation’s stated evaluation and selection criteria by significantly elevating NASA’s stated “goal” of obtaining an integrated crew transportation system no later than the end of 2017. SNC also said NASA failed to put offerors on notice that the agency’s goal would be central to the evaluation and selection decision.
GAO said SNC offered, at a price of $2.6 billion, its Dream Chaser crew transportation system (a lifting body spacecraft shaped like the Space Shuttle), launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, landing horizontally on normal runways.
Boeing, for $3 billion, offered its CST-100 crew transportation system (a capsule spacecraft), launched on an Atlas V and landing using parachutes and airbag systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings. NASA, in September, awarded Boeing $4.2 billion.
SpaceX, for $1.75 billion, offered its Dragon crewed transportation system (also a capsule spacecraft), launched on the company’s Falcon 9, landing using parachutes and propulsive soft landing systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings. NASA awarded SpaceX $2.6 billion.
GAO said NASA, in its selection decision, concluded that Boeing and SpaceX’s proposals represented the best value to the federal government. Specifically, NASA recognized Boeing’s higher price, but also considered the company’s proposal to be the strongest of all three proposals in terms of technical approach, management approach and past performance and offering the crew transportation system with the most utility and highest value to the government.
NASA also recognized several favorable features in the Sierra Nevada and SpaceX proposals, but ultimately concluded that SpaceX’s lower price made it a better value than the proposal submitted by Sierra Nevada, according to GAO. Contrary to Sierra Nevada’s assertions, GAO said NASA’s request for proposals (RFP) clearly advised offerors that their proposals would be evaluated against the goal of certification by the end of 2017.
GAO said Sierra Nevada also argued that NASA conducted an inadequate review of the realism of SpaceX’s price and overall financial resources, conducted a flawed and disparate evaluation of proposals under the mission suitability evaluation factor and improperly evaluated the relevance of offerors’ past performance. Based on its review of the issues, GAO said it concluded that these arguments were not supported by the evaluation record, or by the terms of the solicitation.
GAO said its full protest decision is limited to NASA personnel and outside counsel under protective order due to proprietary and source selection-sensitive information. GAO expects to release a public decision in a few weeks as parties have been directed to submit proposed redactions for such a decision.
SNC said in a statement Monday that while the outcome was not what the company expected, it maintains its belief that Dream Chaser is technically very capable and reliable and was qualified to win based on NASA’s high ratings of the space system. SNC said because it believes Dream Chaser will play a “central role” in shaping the future of space transportation, it responded to NASA’s second Commercial Cargo Resupply Services procurement (CRS-2).
SNC said it also plans to further the development and testing of Dream Chaser and is making significant progress in its vehicle design and test program. The company is also continuing to grow its existing domestic and international partnerships to expand Dream Chaser’s multi-mission flexibility.
NASA said Monday in a statement it was pleased with GAO’s decision. SNC on Oct. 16 sued to stop work, only to have a federal judge rule against the company. Along with SNC, Blue Origin also lost out on CCtCap (Defense Daily, Oct. 22). ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing.