In leaked email, ULA official calls NASA management “incompetent”

In what appear to be legitimate emails from April and May, a senior official at the US rocket company United Launch Alliance (ULA) calls the leadership of NASA “incompetent and unpredictable.”

The statement was made in one of six emails leaked to a hacking forum Tuesday night. The leaked emails all 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 large aerospace union.

The emails make claims, some verifiable and others that seem grossly flawed, about the relationship between NASA, the Trump administration, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and China. The central argument made by ULA – a company whose launch business has been damaged by the rise of SpaceX – is that NASA, led by Trump officials, favored SpaceX for political reasons.

“NASA’s big taxpayer investments are wasted due to the warm relationship established by Trump’s political hacks within NASA,” Sabathier wrote on April 23. “The US government’s deep space exploration program is in danger: space exploration is under threat due to political favors offered to Elon Musk.”

In response to a question about Ars’ emails, ULA spokesperson Jessica Rye declined to comment on their content. “We won’t comment at this time, but take this alleged cybercrime seriously,” Rye said. “As we continue to investigate thoroughly, we have no evidence to suggest any ULA accounts or systems have been breached.”

Email calendar

The emails were exchanged shortly after NASA announced its selection of SpaceX to build a human landing system for the space agency’s Artemis program in mid-April. SpaceX defeated a team led by Blue Origin, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, and a team led by Dynetics. ULA was part of the Dynetics team, providing launch services with its new Vulcan rocket.

NASA’s decision – which the agency said was based on SpaceX having the most technically competent offer and the lowest price – sparked a storm of criticism from Blue Origin. The company protested to the United States Government Accountability Office and, after losing that objection, sued NASA in the United States Federal Claims Court. Dynetics had a more low-key response, although these email leaks suggest there was considerable lobbying behind the scenes.

Sabathier claimed Musk had a pleasant relationship with the Trump administration, which had populated NASA with a bunch of “hacks,” including Trump-appointed administrator Jim Bridenstine. As a result, wrote Sabathier, “NASA’s reputation with the industry has been eroded due to Trump’s politicization of the Agency for his own benefit. The A-Suite leadership at NASA Headquarters is currently incompetent. and unpredictable. “

By the time she wrote this email, however, Trump-era officials had left NASA three months ago. Instead, the decision to select the human landing system was made by two officials: Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk and NASA Human Space Flight Program Chief Kathy Lueders.

Criticizing the leadership of NASA’s “administrator suite”, Sabathier also targeted Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s chief science officer. This can make the October launch of NASA’s asteroid mission Lucy a little uncomfortable. Lucy will launch on an Atlas V rocket built by ULA, and Zurbuchen and ULA CEO Tory Bruno will likely hold joint press conferences.

The emails, and an accompanying Microsoft Word document, contain allegations that Musk trampled on U.S. regulatory agencies, but acted more subordinately to Chinese regulators with respect to his Tesla auto company. None of this information is particularly new to those who follow the space and automotive industries. Musk is stubborn and has always had a difficult relationship with regulators such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission. And American companies must follow strict Chinese rules to operate in China.

In the April and May emails, Sabathier told Solomon that new NASA administrator Bill Nelson should be made aware of the Trump administration’s favoritism towards SpaceX and should be encouraged to untie it. Sabathier attempted to portray Musk as a strong Republican supporter who used his influence to win contracts with NASA. And in writing to Solomon, Sabathier noted Musk’s anti-union efforts and said Solomon should share this information with his White House contacts.

For example, in an April 23 email, Solomon thanked Sabathier for sending him an article from a conservative website, Townhall.com, which criticized Musk for his disregard for security. After receiving the article, Solomon wrote to Sabathier: “This is very helpful !!!! I will meet with the White House public engagement staff next week and bring our concerns to Elan Musk. [sic] & his anti-work society.

In response, Sabathier responded via email, “Let me know if there is anything else you need, we are here to serve you!” “

If those emails are valid, and there’s little reason to believe they aren’t, they paint the picture of ULA slandering a competitor, SpaceX, because it won more federal government contracts. This seems like a somewhat clumsy attempt, as it’s hard to see Democratic White House officials being persuaded by opinion pieces in publications like Townhall.

Echoes in history

Notably, the leak comes about five years after another ULA official, Brett Tobey, spoke candidly in front of a class at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Not realizing that his remarks were being taped, Tobey approached an Air Force launch contract that ULA had not chosen to bid on because it could not compete with SpaceX’s prices.

“We’re going to have to figure out how to deliver these things at a much lower cost,” Tobey said in March 2016. “And the government can’t just say, ‘The ULA has a great track record; they’ve made 105 launches in a row with 100% mission success, and we can give it to them on a silver platter even if their costs are two or three times that. ‘”

Since then, ULA, under the leadership of Tory Bruno, has sought to become more competitive with SpaceX in terms of price, and it has won accolades from the industry for doing so. But it’s difficult for ULA, which is co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to make significant progress. One of the reasons is that the parent companies are looking to capitalize on ULA rather than investing in innovation that could allow Bruno to better compete with SpaceX.

As a result, it appears the ULA continues to pressure the government over Musk and SpaceX, claiming they won government contracts through an unfair process. Most of these claims are false. NASA has said time and time again that SpaceX often offers the lowest price and the fastest service, as with the Commercial Crew Program.

SpaceX and Boeing both won multi-billion dollar contracts in 2014 to deliver NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX and its Crew Dragon launched their first NASA astronauts in May 2020. Although they have received around 40% additional funding from NASA for the same service, Boeing and ULA are unlikely to fly astronauts from NASA before the second half of 2022 at the earliest.

A few days after his class speech in 2016, Tobey resigned from ULA. A similar fate may soon await Sabathier.