Reports indicate that SpaceX may have enticed NASA with expensive goods, after a dramatic launch failure, to receive a no bid contract for additional and lucrative launches? This sweetheart deal would have blocked competition for the additional launches in a way that stinks of cronyism.
Space News reported on the deal on June 29, 2016:
NASA received discounted prices for future cargo missions and other “significant consideration” from SpaceX in the aftermath of the loss of a Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station, according to a NASA report.
In June of 2015, the Falcon 9, a SpaceX provided rocket, destroyed a NASA Dragon Spacecraft that was intended to dock with a space based satellite called ISS. The cargo carried by the rocket was valued at $112 million and was destroyed after the rocket crashed. One would think that a contractor would be punished for destroying $112 million in…
