Blue Origin's 39A protest: 'unicorns dancing in the flame duct'
- From:
- Elon Musk
- Date:
- September 2013 (Sent 'Tuesday night' in response to a SpaceNews query during the September 2013 dispute over the Launch Complex 39A lease; exact day not shown on the retrieved page)
- To:
- SpaceNews (reporter query)
From a SpaceX standpoint, we view [Blue Origin] and [United Launch Alliance's] action as a phony blocking tactic and an obvious one at that. BO has not yet succeeded in creating a reliable suborbital spacecraft, despite spending over 10 years in development. It is therefore unlikely that they will succeed in developing an orbital vehicle that will meet NASA's exacting standards in the next 5 years, which is the length of the lease. That said, I can't say for sure whether [Blue Origin's] action stems from malice. No such doubt exists about ULA's motivation.
However, rather than fight this issue, there is an easy way to determine the truth, which is simply to call their bluff. If they do somehow show up in the next 5 years with a vehicle qualified to NASA's human rating standards that can dock with the Space Station, which is what Pad 39A is meant to do, we will gladly accommodate their needs. Frankly, I think we are more likely to discover unicorns dancing in the flame duct.