Says Congress Is Trying To Change Acquisition Language That Could Significantly Delay Commercial Crew Program

The Space Access Society has posted information on its website that relates to changes proposed by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) (pictured) which the group says could significantly delay the Commercial Crew program.

The Space Access Society cites reports from the Houston Chronicle and Florida Today quoting Commercial Spaceflight Federation executive director Alex Saltman, who said the industry association's view is that Senator Shelby's provision to impose cost-plus contract-type "certified cost and pricing data" on these programs could disrupt contracting and would increase overall costs.

“The language would effectively change an efficient and lean commercial program into a traditional government procurement with all of the associated overhead and cost,” Saltman said. “In addition, if this language were to become law before NASA awards the latest commercial crew contracts, NASA would likely have to restart the procurement with these new rules, pushing back the program up to a year and sending hundreds of millions of more taxpayer dollars to Russia for Soyuz rides,” Saltman added. “If the language were to go into effect after the awards, NASA could be tied up in contract renegotiations and challenges for months if not years.”

Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the CSF and four-time NASA astronaut, added "It's just bad policy.  The whole idea behind the commercial crew program is to not do a lot of the stuff that we have traditionally done. It would be nice to be a little forward leaning, and to save taxpayer money."

While Shelby's office said that it was only looking for transparency in the acquisition process, the Space Access Society writes that it disagrees. "If it were, Senator Shelby would be doing something about Space Launch System's major cost-transparency issues.  The GAO says that preliminary SLS program cost estimates fail to include either "the long-term, life cycle costs associated with the programs or significant prior costs".  SLS is already subject to full "certified cost and pricing data" reporting.  It doesn't seem to help," the group said on its website.

The Space Access Society is urging members of the public to contact their senators on the issue "soon."

FMI: http://www.space-access.org/updates/sasalert061114.html