Aug 11, 2021 11:43 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 12, 2021 06:03 PM by C C.)
This is probably why Blue Origin keeps protesting NASA’s lunar lander award
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/...der-award/
INTRO: On Wednesday, the US Government Accountability Office released its full-but-redacted decision that ruled in favor of NASA's selection of a Human Landing System contractor. The document (see PDF) makes clear that SpaceX offered NASA the most technically ready, well-managed, lowest-cost option.
Furthermore, the decision document says NASA was entirely justified in selecting a single winner for the lunar lander bid because Congress appropriated only about one-quarter of the funds sought by the space agency. NASA, the document states, "expressly put all offerors on notice that the number of awards was subject to available funding, and the agency could make multiple contract awards, a single award, or no award at all."
As it has already done several times since NASA's original decision to select SpaceX in April, Blue Origin greeted the GAO's full decision with a testy response. "We stand by our assessment that SpaceX received preferential treatment," the statement says, in part.
Blue Origin is clearly not giving up on the Human Landing System contract, nor is it shy to continue attacking NASA and its choice of SpaceX to build the lander, even if it now seems like a forlorn hope. NASA made its decision in April. And now the GAO looked into the matter and found that NASA's decision was sound and justified.
So what the heck is Blue Origin and its founder, Jeff Bezos, up to? Why is his company continuing to look like a sore loser in the industry and continuing to insult an important customer in NASA? I have a theory.
Back in 2004, a company named Kistler Aerospace won a $227 million contract from NASA to complete the development of its K-1 rocket and allow for the delivery of supplies to the International Space Station... (MORE)
RELATED (scivillage): Blue Origin tries again to alter NASA's mind: SpaceX's HLS is high risk
The Texas power grid is hanging on by its fingernails
https://gizmodo.com/the-texas-power-grid...1847466510
EXCERPTS: On Tuesday, Reuters reported that The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) predicted this week that the system will see peak highs in energy use this week [...] It’s not super likely that consumers will see problems—but given the state of the grid and the messy reforms it’s endured since the deadly February blackouts, it’s not unreasonable to keep an eye out.
While much of the rest of the country has been experiencing record-breaking heat this summer, Texas has actually been spared from feeling the worst impacts of climate change this year. [...] But the probability that the grid will get through this week doesn’t mean everything is hunky-dory in the Lone Star State. The grid edged close to disaster in June when ERCOT asked customers to conserve energy after a couple of power plants mysteriously went offline during rising summer temperatures. This request followed a panicked notice in April when customers were also asked to keep energy use down after several power plants were offline at the same time for maintenance.
[...] “There’s been years of underinvestment [in ERCOT], and I don’t just mean new generation, but reinvestment in keeping the old equipment operational,” said Ed Hirs, a professor of energy economics at the University of Houston. “We saw that in February, we saw that in April, and we saw it that week in June. The big nightmare is that this equipment may not respond because it simply hasn’t been kept up.”
The clusterfuck of bad luck, poor planning, and mismanagement that caused the outages in February that killed hundreds of people, plunged parts of the state into darkness for days and caused millions of dollars in consumer fees exposed ERCOT for the long-mismanaged mess it is. [...] the fact that the failure of natural gas facilities was a core part of the problem in February—Republicans in Texas, including Gov. Greg Abbott, were quick to jump on the narrative that frozen wind turbines were responsible for all the state’s problems. (Spoiler alert: they really weren’t.)
In June, Abbott signed two ERCOT reforms into law. [...] These changes, in many ways, were the bare minimum to address the harm done in February ... What’s more, the Texas legislature passed bills that would force wind and solar providers to pay extra money to counter government subsidies, furthering the narrative that renewables were solely responsible for the disaster in February.
After signing the reform bills, Abbott proclaimed that “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.” That’s... a bold announcement, to say the least. [...] Abbott’s latest appointment to the ERCOT board selection committee is Arch “Beaver” Aplin ... who doesn’t seem to have any experience in utilities—but who just so happens to be a big donor to Abbott’s reelection bid... (MORE - missing details)
RELATED (gizmodo): The real reason for Texas rolling blackouts
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/...der-award/
INTRO: On Wednesday, the US Government Accountability Office released its full-but-redacted decision that ruled in favor of NASA's selection of a Human Landing System contractor. The document (see PDF) makes clear that SpaceX offered NASA the most technically ready, well-managed, lowest-cost option.
Furthermore, the decision document says NASA was entirely justified in selecting a single winner for the lunar lander bid because Congress appropriated only about one-quarter of the funds sought by the space agency. NASA, the document states, "expressly put all offerors on notice that the number of awards was subject to available funding, and the agency could make multiple contract awards, a single award, or no award at all."
As it has already done several times since NASA's original decision to select SpaceX in April, Blue Origin greeted the GAO's full decision with a testy response. "We stand by our assessment that SpaceX received preferential treatment," the statement says, in part.
Blue Origin is clearly not giving up on the Human Landing System contract, nor is it shy to continue attacking NASA and its choice of SpaceX to build the lander, even if it now seems like a forlorn hope. NASA made its decision in April. And now the GAO looked into the matter and found that NASA's decision was sound and justified.
So what the heck is Blue Origin and its founder, Jeff Bezos, up to? Why is his company continuing to look like a sore loser in the industry and continuing to insult an important customer in NASA? I have a theory.
Back in 2004, a company named Kistler Aerospace won a $227 million contract from NASA to complete the development of its K-1 rocket and allow for the delivery of supplies to the International Space Station... (MORE)
RELATED (scivillage): Blue Origin tries again to alter NASA's mind: SpaceX's HLS is high risk
The Texas power grid is hanging on by its fingernails
https://gizmodo.com/the-texas-power-grid...1847466510
EXCERPTS: On Tuesday, Reuters reported that The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) predicted this week that the system will see peak highs in energy use this week [...] It’s not super likely that consumers will see problems—but given the state of the grid and the messy reforms it’s endured since the deadly February blackouts, it’s not unreasonable to keep an eye out.
While much of the rest of the country has been experiencing record-breaking heat this summer, Texas has actually been spared from feeling the worst impacts of climate change this year. [...] But the probability that the grid will get through this week doesn’t mean everything is hunky-dory in the Lone Star State. The grid edged close to disaster in June when ERCOT asked customers to conserve energy after a couple of power plants mysteriously went offline during rising summer temperatures. This request followed a panicked notice in April when customers were also asked to keep energy use down after several power plants were offline at the same time for maintenance.
[...] “There’s been years of underinvestment [in ERCOT], and I don’t just mean new generation, but reinvestment in keeping the old equipment operational,” said Ed Hirs, a professor of energy economics at the University of Houston. “We saw that in February, we saw that in April, and we saw it that week in June. The big nightmare is that this equipment may not respond because it simply hasn’t been kept up.”
The clusterfuck of bad luck, poor planning, and mismanagement that caused the outages in February that killed hundreds of people, plunged parts of the state into darkness for days and caused millions of dollars in consumer fees exposed ERCOT for the long-mismanaged mess it is. [...] the fact that the failure of natural gas facilities was a core part of the problem in February—Republicans in Texas, including Gov. Greg Abbott, were quick to jump on the narrative that frozen wind turbines were responsible for all the state’s problems. (Spoiler alert: they really weren’t.)
In June, Abbott signed two ERCOT reforms into law. [...] These changes, in many ways, were the bare minimum to address the harm done in February ... What’s more, the Texas legislature passed bills that would force wind and solar providers to pay extra money to counter government subsidies, furthering the narrative that renewables were solely responsible for the disaster in February.
After signing the reform bills, Abbott proclaimed that “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.” That’s... a bold announcement, to say the least. [...] Abbott’s latest appointment to the ERCOT board selection committee is Arch “Beaver” Aplin ... who doesn’t seem to have any experience in utilities—but who just so happens to be a big donor to Abbott’s reelection bid... (MORE - missing details)
RELATED (gizmodo): The real reason for Texas rolling blackouts
