Recent hacked emails testify to intensive lobbying by United Launch Alliance leaders to discredit SpaceX. These exchanges are essentially about so-called privileged relations between NASA, the Trump administration, Elon Musk and China.
A few days ago, Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin took its fight against NASA's manned lunar landing program to federal court. The lawsuit, part of a months-long crusade by the company to win some of the funds offered by the US agency that wants to rely only on SpaceX to return humans to the Moon, will once again delay plus the development of the Artemis program.
However, Blue Origin is obviously not the only one to take a dim view of SpaceX's success. Several emails posted a few days ago on a hacking forum testify to several maneuvers orchestrated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a historic NASA client , to discredit Elon Musk.
Six emails, part of the content of which has just been shared by Ars Technica, were distributed in April and May. The latter involve correspondence between Robbie Sabathier, vice president of government operations and strategic communications at ULA, and Hasan Solomon, a lobbyist for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (a major aerospace union). .
In one of these emails, Robbie Sabathier allegedly described NASA management as "incompetent and unpredictable “, on the pretext that the American agency would have favored SpaceX for political reasons under the direction of the Trump administration.
“NASA taxpayers' big investments are wasted due to the warm relationship established by Trump's political hacks inside NASA “, can we read in particular in one of the emails dating from April 23. “The US government's deep space exploration program is in jeopardy:Space exploration is under threat due to political favors offered to Elon Musk “.
In these emails, Sabathier also notes to Solomon that Bill Nelson, the new NASA administrator, should be made aware of the Trump administration's favoritism towards SpaceX and should be encouraged to untie it. Sabathier then attempts to portray Musk as a powerful Republican backer who used his influence to win contracts with NASA.
In another email dated April 23, Solomon thanks Sabathier for sending him an article from the conservative site Townhall.com which criticizes Elon Musk for his disregard for the rules of security . “This is very helpful!!! I will be meeting with White House Public Engagement staff next week and raising our concerns about Elon Musk “, writes Hasan Solomon. To which Sabathier replies:"Let me know if you need anything else, we are here to serve you! “.
The emails and accompanying Microsoft Word document also contain allegations that Elon Musk is in constant confrontation with US regulatory agencies over his car company Tesla, while that he would be more inclined to accept the conditions of Chinese regulators.
On paper, this isn't surprising. As Ars Tectnica's Eric Berger recalls, Musk has always had a rocky relationship with US regulators. Its disagreements with the Federal Aviation Administration (DAA), which sometimes seems to want to slow down the development of the Starship, are examples of this. In addition, we know that American companies must follow strict Chinese rules in order to operate in China .
When questioned by Ars Technica, Jessica Rye, a spokeswoman for ULA, declined to comment on the content of these emails.
That being said, if we knew that Blue Origin was struggling to accept defeat, remember that another company was also competing for this contract:Dynectics. However, ULA was part of the Dynetics team and provided launch services with its new Vulcan rocket. If Blue Origin does not hesitate to openly criticize NASA's decision like its competitor SpaceX, it would seem that Dynetics has also lobbied, but behind the scenes through ULA.
ULA therefore continues to pressure the US government to try to destabilize SpaceX, on the pretext that the company has won several government contracts unjustifiably. However, if SpaceX wins so many contracts, it is in reality because the company offers more attractive prices for faster and more efficient services. Rather than taking responsibility and getting to work to find a way to compete, ULA officials, visibly in denial, therefore favor a posture of denunciation and withdrawal.
In general, this is the beginning of the end.
