Btw, if James Cameron is reading this, maybe it's time to reshoot Titanic as a space opera? Thing hits space junk starts crashing toward earth, burning up in atmosphere, involves a Baumgartner level skydive from an escape pod, Tom Cruise does his own stunts. Call me.
Set the bid really high, get the knock back, then complain to the authorities, then get a rerun on the tender with a magically cheaper price submitted for the same thing.
NASA has been good at running the contracts (mostly). When the new Head of Human Spaceflight tried to give Boeing insider information he was strictly fired.
BlueOrigin has endlessly complained about SpaceX selection of HLS but so far nothing.
This strategy doesn't work when a better and cheaper competitor exists.
Last week the senate requested that 2 projects be funded, thanks to lobbying by the consortiums. Team Dynetics pulled out of the GAO contesting as they knew they'd get another support contract for future Artemis project missions.
The Arthur C. Clarke novel "Islands in the Sky" covers something similar, including a reckless actor who decides to do his own stunts. Things don't go well. Still a fun book, though probably more aimed at kids.
Btw, if James Cameron is reading this, maybe it's time to reshoot Titanic as a space opera? Thing hits space junk starts crashing toward earth, burning up in atmosphere, involves a Baumgartner level skydive from an escape pod, Tom Cruise does his own stunts. Call me.