PlanetSpace Denied Protest to Halt Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Orbital Launches

PlanetSpace, Inc. has lost its appeal to the General Accountability Office (GAO) of a $1.9 billion contract award to Orbital Sciences Corporation by NASA clearing the way for eight orbital flights to originate from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport beginning in 2011 to re-supply the International Space Station.

PlanetSpace is a private commercial rocket startup that contracted Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Co. to develop a cargo delivery vehicle that would dock with the ISS. The company contracted to launch the cargo aboard an Athena III rocket built by aerospace giant ATK, maker of space shuttle boosters.

The NASA contract award to Orbital Sciences Corporation was made December 23, 2008 and was protested by PlanetSpace on January 14, 2009 and denied April 22, 2009. Orbital will use the yet fully developed Taurus-2 booster to re-supply the space station with unmanned flights.