spacetoday.net: Sierra Nevada files protest of CCtCap award

Posted: Sat, Sep 27, 2014, 10:37 AM ET (1437 GMT)
Dream Chaser launch on Atlas 5 illus. (SNC)

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), which lost a NASA commercial crew contract earlier this month to two other companies, said Friday it is protesting the contract awards. SNC said it filed the protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) after concluding there were "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process" for NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts. NASA awarded contracts with a maximum value of $6.8 billion on September 16 to Boeing and SpaceX. SNC argued that it offered NASA a solution with similar technical merits but at a savings of $900 million. SNC was the third major company in the CCtCap competition; it, along with Boeing and SpaceX, had received awards in previous phases of the program. NASA is required to respond to the protest in 30 days, and GAO to rule on the protest by January 5.