NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

I love how government acquisitions works. A company can fail to deliver the final product, then use the recompete process to win a higher paying contract by using the progress they already made on the previous contract to demonstrate a performance level above their competitors.

Whereas all the competition has to use their own R&D budget to show capability to meet the requirements of the second contract, the winner of the first contract used the government's R&D money to be competitive.

I'm confused. Who are you talking about here?

SpaceX has consistently been on the wrong end of what you write about, with ULA/Boeing/whatever pulling that kind of stunt again and again. Just look at the SLS budget.

I'm assuming SpaceX will win this, and lamenting that. However I'm also being more general because you are absolutely on the same page as me that this is a decades-old problem.

I don't hate the player, I hate the game.

Lamenting it why though?

Because it's sad that other space companies are shit? Yea ok. I can get behind it.

Because you dislike Elon and would rather see the US space program turn to shit than allow Elon to get a symbolic win? Then I'm not onboard anymore.

No I couldn't care less about the people involved. And while it is sad that other space companies are not at the same level as SpaceX right now, even that wasn't my point. I'm sorry for the confusion.

My issue is purely with the US government's acquisitions process that seems to encourage a lack of competition and actually seems to actively hinder good research and development.

This monopsony needs an alternative.