And People Wonder Why Government Space Is So Expensive
Air Force spending $60 million to certify Musk’s SpaceX, Stars and Stripes
“The Air Force is spending about $60 million and using as many as 100 people to certify billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. for launching military and spy satellites, according to the service’s top uniformed acquisition official. “We’ve got folks busting their butt to get SpaceX certified despite what everything in the media seems to say,” Lt. Gen. Charles Davis said in an interview.”
Shelton on SpaceX suit: generally the person you're going to do business with you don't sue. #30spacesymposium
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 20, 2014
Shelton: when you're spending $60M and putting 100 people on certifying SpaceX, hard to say you're excluding them. #30spacesymposium
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 20, 2014
Shelton: don't know if NASA will accept our certification process for Falcon 9, or do their own. #30spacesymposium
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 20, 2014
Keith’s note: Gen. Shelton seems to be utterly oblivious to the fact that large aerospace contractors incessantly file protests, complaints, and lawsuits about DoD decisions. Its a normal part of doing business with the government. As for the $60 million for these 100 people, that’s $600,000 per person. Wow. That sure sounds efficient.
As for the cost of certifying SpaceX clearly the USAF has no concern about what things cost – either internally or via procurements. None whatsoever. And they will do what they want – when they want. Again cost is not a factor to them. NASA doesn’t seem to care either. And no one seems to be at all interested in coordinating things like this – the net result being duplication of costly efforts – again, at additional expense. Then, when its budget time, these agencies never seem to have enough money to pay for this circus.
