French!
Bezos!
Ars Technica:
"Commercial space companies like SpaceX play by different rules," the op-ed states.
In early August, Boeing's Leanne Caret and SpaceX's Gwynne Shotwell took the stage at Johnson Space Center to announce the first astronauts who will fly on their commercial crew spacecraft. It was a significant moment to see two of the most powerful women in aerospace alongside one another—two fierce competitors coming together for the good of the country.
As president and chief executive officer of Boeing's Defense, Space, & Security unit, Caret said the company took pride in working with NASA and the aerospace industry to bring a human space launch capability back to America. "All of us are here today because we stand for something new and profound," Caret said. "It is personal for all of us in this room, together, returning American astronauts on American rockets from US soil and creating endless possibilities for generations to come."
Around this time, half a dozen newspapers across the country—several in key space markets—began publishing an op-ed that criticized the process by which Boeing competitor SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rocket. The first op-ed appeared in a Memphis newspaper a week before the commercial crew announcement. In recent weeks, copies of the op-ed have also appeared in the Houston Chronicle, various Alabama newspapers, Albuquerque Journal, Florida Today, and The Washington Times.Both Roscosmos (Russia) and Ariane (France) have complained about SpaceX in the Recent past:
Who placed the op-eds?
All of these op-eds were bylined by "retired spacecraft operator" Richard Hagar, who worked for NASA during the Apollo program and now lives in Tennessee. (Based upon his limited social media postings, Hagar appears to be more interested in conservative politics than in space these days). Each op-ed cites Hagar's work on NASA's recovery from the Apollo 1 fire and the hard lessons NASA learned that day about human spaceflight.
The pieces then pivot to arguing that SpaceX's load-and-go fueling process—in which the crew will board the Dragon spacecraft on top of the Falcon 9 rocket before it is fueled—ignores the lessons that Hagar's generation learned during Apollo....MORE
June i
Russian State Space Giant Roscosmos May Curb Space Program Due to Lack of Funds (plus Ariane and SpaceX do a flyby)
...Ariane chief seems frustrated with SpaceX for driving down launch costsAnd:
The France-based Ariane Group is the primary contractor for the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, and it has also begun developing the Ariane 6 rocket. The firm has a reliable record—indeed, NASA chose the Ariane 5 booster to fly its multi-billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope—but it also faces an uncertain future in an increasingly competitive launch market.
Like Russia and the US-based United Launch Alliance, the Ariane Group faces pricing pressure from SpaceX, which offers launch prices as low as $62 million for its Falcon 9 rocket. It has specifically developed the Ariane 6 rocket to compete with the Falcon 9 booster....
Oct. 3
Competition/Antitrust: "Russian space boss accuses Elon Musk and Pentagon of dumping conspiracy"
