It is pretty amazing to see the United Launch Alliance (ULA) walk away from a US Air Force contact, basically handing it over to SpaceX. The consortium of Lockheed Martin and Boeing admitted they were not prepared for a contract bid.
Explaining ULA's position, CEO Tory Bruno stated:
The key elements of reliability and schedule, certainly our most important strengths, are not allowed to be considered to differentiate bidders...It comes down to being a price-only comparison, which takes our biggest strengths off the table.
In other words, ULA cannot compete on price. ULA also wanted to use Russian rockets, while Congress opposes this option.
In the past the Pentagon would have handed it to them regardless of such readiness, so this is a win for SpaceX and taxpayers. Let the competition continue.
