Fwd: Musk, Bruno Could Spar in Capitol Hill Arena

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 11, 2015 at 7:59:12 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Musk, Bruno Could Spar in Capitol Hill Arena

 

 

U.S. Air Force leader eyes SpaceX launch certification by June

WASHINGTON Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:30pm EDT

 

The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket, launched by SpaceX and carrying NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite, lifts off from launch pad 40 the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida February 11, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Scott Audette

(Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force hopes to certify privately-held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch some U.S. military and intelligence satellites into space using its Falcon 9 rocket by June, a top official told Reuters on Tuesday.

"I think we're still looking at ... June," Lieutenant General Ellen Pawlikowski, the top uniformed officer in charge of Air Force acquisition, told Reuters after a speech at the annual Women in Defense conference.

Pawlikowski, nominated by President Barack Obama to head Air Force Materiel Command, said she was disappointed the Air Force had not been able to certify SpaceX for the launches by December, as initially hoped, but said she was "encouraged that we're close."

The general said allowing SpaceX to enter a market dominated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of the two top Pentagon suppliers, Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, would let the Air Force leverage the commercial market and help reduce the cost of launching satellites into space.

Pawlikowski, who trimmed the cost of satellite programs by $3 billion during her tenure as the head of Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, welcomed a variety of initiatives under way across the Pentagon to benefit from investment by commercial firms like SpaceX.

She cited some lingering institutional resistance to change, but said the Air Force was working more closely with industry to understand how simple adjustments in requirements for weapons systems could lower costs and free up resources for other work.

She said one key step was empowering acquisition officials to look at innovative products and solutions instead of turning to the same suppliers and products that had always been used.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

 

Copyright © 2015 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

 

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Musk, Bruno Could Spar in Capitol Hill Arena

by Mike Gruss — March 10, 2015

House members will question Elon Musk (left), the founder of SpaceX and Tory Bruno, the new chief executive of United Launch Alliance, during a March 17 hearing on launching national security satellite. Credit: SpaceNews/Lisa Nipp and ULA

WASHINGTON — The U.S. launch industry's two biggest rivals — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk and his counterpart at United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno — could face off at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing March 17.

Musk, whose company is challenging ULA's monopoly in the U.S. national security launch business, has been invited to testify alongside Bruno before the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee as part of an industry panel on "Assured Access to Space," according to a hearing schedule obtained by SpaceNews.

The two companies are battling for the U.S. government's launch business but also for the hearts and minds of U.S. lawmakers, many of whom have complained about the current high cost of launching national security missions.

This would not be the first joint appearance before Congress by the top executives of SpaceX and ULA. Last March, Musk and Michael Gass, Bruno's predecessor, squared off before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, where they were offered the opportunity to submit written questions to one another.

Musk's questions zeroed in on the roughly $1 billion ULA receives annually in so-called Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Launch Capability funding, which covers costs that are not necessarily tied to individual missions. He challenged Gass to fold those costs into a single overarching EELV contract whose value is divided on a mission-by-mission basis.

Gass, for his part, forced Musk to acknowledge that SpaceX currently is capable of handling only 60 percent of the Defense Department's payloads and that government requirements would tend to drive SpaceX launch prices higher than the company's advertised rates.

Bruno is a former Lockheed Martin vice president — ULA is a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture — who took over ULA in August. He has proved more outspoken than Gass, using social media, mainly Twitter, to advocate for his company and take jabs at Musk.

The industry panel will be preceded by one whose witnesses include: Katrina McFarland, assistant secretary of defense for acquisition; Bill LaPlante, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition; Gen. John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command; and Mitch Mitchell, vice president at the Aerospace Corp., which provides engineering advice on U.S. national security space programs.

 

 © 2015 SpaceNews, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

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