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SpaceX has been bidding against itself for NASA’s science missions for awhile - Ars Technica
Oct 04, 2022 59 secs

On Friday NASA closed the bidding process to select a launch vehicle for an upcoming Earth science mission to measure changes in sea level, Sentinel-6B.

This is because, at present, there are no other bidders for NASA's medium and large science missions beyond SpaceX and its fleet of Falcon rockets.

United Launch Alliance chief executive Tory Bruno confirmed this himself after NASA's announcement in September 2021 that the GOES-U satellite would launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket.

A source confirmed that United Launch Alliance also did not bid on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch, which NASA announced in July 2022 it had awarded to SpaceX, nor the Sentinel-6B contract, for which bidding closed on September 30.

This lack of competition harkens back to the period from 2005 to 2015, when NASA was largely reliant on United Launch Alliance, and its Delta and Atlas rockets, for getting its science missions into space.

Partly in response to this competition, and partly due to a desire to end its reliance on Russian rocket engines, United Launch Alliance is ending production of both its Atlas and Delta rockets in favor of what it intends to be a more cost-competitive, American-made rocket, Vulcan.

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