SpaceX Bid Protest Denied by GAO; Virginia Cleared for Moon Probe Launch in 2012

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Posted Feb. 14, 2010 --- The General Accountability Office on February 1, 2010 denied a bid protest brought by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) against the US Air Force. The decision enables Orbital Sciences Corporation to utilize the Minotaur-V to launch a lunar probe from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. set now for late October 2012. The full decision has not yet been posted at GAO. SpaceX has the option to appeal to the United States Court of Claims.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is set to commence launching the new Taurus-2 booster from the Wallops Island site early next year and thereupon commence specific performance on the $1.9 billion NASA contract to provide re-supply and cargo to the international space station. PlanetSpace attacked the award of the ISS cargo contract to Orbital but it too was denied by the GAO.