GAO Decision on Sierra Nevada Bid Protest Expected Monday

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) decision on Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC’s) protest of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contract awards to Boeing and SpaceX is expected tomorrow, January 5, 2015.

GAO has 100 days from the date the protest was filed to make its ruling.  That time period expires tomorrow.

SNC filed the protest on September 26, 2014 noting in a press release that it was the first time the company had taken such action in its 51-year history.   It said there were “serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process.”   Among them was the fact that NASA would spend “up to $900 million more … for a space program equivalent to what SNC proposed” even though price was the primary evaluation criteria in the CCtCAP solicitation.

Aviation Week reported in October that an internal document signed by Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, concluded that SNC’s design had “the lowest level of maturity” and “more schedule uncertainty” than its competitors and “the longest  schedule for completing certification.”  The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on December 23, 2014 that part of SNC’s protest is based on those comments because schedule was not one of the main criteria in the solicitation.  SNC is asserting that Gerstenmaier “overstepped his authority by unilaterally changing the scoring criteria” according to the WSJ.

The protest was filed 10 days after NASA awarded a total of $6.8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX —  $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX — to develop commercial crew transportation systems to service the International Space Station (ISS).  NASA has been supporting all three companies in the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) phase of the program and was expected to be able to support only two in the CCtCAP phase.  

Pursuant to regulations governing contract protests, NASA issued a stop- work order to Boeing and SpaceX once SNC filed the protest, but reversed course and lifted the stop-work order a few days later on the grounds that it was acting within its statutory authority to avoid significant adverse consequences.  SNC filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to have the stop-work order reinstated, but the court ruled in NASA’s favor.

If GAO decides SNC’s protest has merit, NASA may have to go through the solicitation process all over again with consequent potential delays in the availability of commercial crew systems.  NASA is hoping that at least one of the systems will be available by the end of 2017, two years later than its original plan because Congress did not provide all of the requested funding for the program.   Some members of Congress continue to question why, for example, NASA is funding two companies instead of one.

NASA has been dependent on Russia to take crews to and from the ISS since the space shuttle program was terminated in 2011 and must continue to rely on Russia until a new U.S. system is available.  By law, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft must be designed to service the ISS as a backup in case the commercial crew program fails, but the first crewed launch of Orion is not scheduled until 2021.