Does Alan Boyle have a scoop?
SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada selected to receive money from NASA for future spaceships, NBC reports.
There were rumors that the announcement was delayed because the White House was unhappy with the selection. If true, many inferred from this that ATK was one of the winners. So if NBC has it right, that would imply that either the rumors weren’t true, or that NASA changed its mind as a result of White House unhappiness. In either event, ATK will be unhappy. As will its supporters in Congress.
[Update a couple minutes later]
It’s Alan Boyle. I think he’s probably got pretty solid stuff, which means that someone leaked.
[Update a while later, about 6 PM PDT]
nope.. it’s Jay Barbree with the scoop.. and he should be shamed by his peers for his tabloid attention whoring tactics. Was there really any need to jump on this? Save the anonymous sources for something that is actually being suppressed.
As you can see in the comments, Alan doesn’t have the first clue about journalistic integrity. Apparently, if he hears a rumor from someone he figures is creditable, he will rush to publish it.. even if they are unwilling to have their name on the record. Remember those words, “on the record”? Journalists used to say that back when they took their job seriously.
This is our money NASA is handling, and NASA is our agency, so we have a right to know. Sure, it is just a day away from the official announcement, but why should NASA’s preferred schedule take precedence over our own preference to know now. This leak is an example of the press doing its job, and I appreciate it. Trent, you shouldn’t have to be reminded that an independent press is essential in free society; independent for small mild-mannered stories like this one as well as for full-blown Watergate-level monster scandals.
Nonsense. A press that will publish frivolous rumors from people who refuse to even go on the record are not worth much.
There is a story here.. it’s the political objection to the decision that was made last month. If Barbree had been able to get anyone on the record back then we would have seen the press actually being essential – but he couldn’t. Instead, we got a whining opinion piece about why he prefers ATK.
Now we have Alan pretending he’s caught wind of Apple’s next gadget announcement. How’s that so necessary?
There’s no serious journalism going on here, don’t pretend there is.
“How’s that so necessary?”
Different people find different kinds of news interesting. I personally don’t care about the olympics or the sexual habits of various celebrities, but the funding story I find interesting, and I usually want to find out interesting things sooner rather than later, so Alan did me a service. I don’t care for Barbree’s opinions, but by breaking the story, he did me a service too. And again, the story’s importance, while small, does rise above my personal curiosity, as it is the American citizenry’s money and the American citizenry’s space agency which is involved.
I agree with you that the inside story on how the decision was made is even more interesting, and it would be great if someone reputable can report accurately on it.
Trent, you don’t understand the way the game is played.
Sources will often leak a story to selected reporters in advance of an embargo, in order to gain favor. Usually, that is done anonymously, so as not incur enmity from other reporters who were left out.
If a reporter decided to pass on exclusives like this, others would gladly snatch them up — the system punishes ethical behavior.
As much as I want to know everything before it becomes available to the public, I don’t really like leaks like this. It is easier to ignore because no one is getting killed because of it. I don’t blame the reporter, they would report anything.
In a case like this, it is something we are all going to find out. It is not like this is a leak that will enlighten the public on something the government wants to keep secret because it would reflect badly on the government or there was illegal activity taking place.
Wodun, why don’t you like the leaks? Or, to put it another way, why do you abide by the temporary secrecy?
My wild-eyed rant:
I *hate* NASA’s various information embargoes. It drives me nuts that there are constantly people at NASA who know something I would find interesting who decide that I shouldn’t also know until such-and-such a date. It drives me crazy when I see something like “NASA will announce findings of astrobiological interest…. …next week.” Why should we have to wait until next week? (What if I die before next week?!) I don’t need a pompous or celebratory or otherwise elaborate announcement that takes time to set up – just post the info! And if they won’t post it, I sure am appreciative when someone leaks it.
(Oh, and often, the reason we have to wait until next week for those astrobiological announcements is that NASA is kowtowing to the wishes of journals like Science and Nature. Well, screw them. It is the public’s science, not the proprietary property of the journals. )
Regarding the commercial crew program: if they know the information Thursday, what is the benefit of waiting until Friday to inform the public?
Haaarumph!
I just don’t like leaking confidential information but there are some exceptions like when that fuel depot vs SHLV study was leaked a while back. In cases like that, the government was withholding information that would make it look bad and showed the government behaving badly. In general I like whistleblowers but dislike leaks, there is a significant difference.
Of course I have exceptions to my approval of whistleblowing as well.
I wish I could sit in on CIA briefings but I understand why they wouldn’t want me to and as much as I want to know, I would be pissed if there were leaks.
Not all journalism needs (or should) have public sources. It would be bad if that was the case. Anonymous sources exist for a reason.
Does this story merit it? Perhaps not. But it is a self-correcting situation. If (MS)NBC’s sources feel betrayed by this leaking out, they will clearly NOT spill more beans to the journalist in question.
Anonymous sources should be the rare exception.. and good cause should be shown.
This isn’t negotiable, it’s basic journalistic integrity.
It’s worth noting here that Alan’s source was correct. That’s why anonymous sources will never go away. Because sometimes they are right.
I have seen a lot of people at NASA interested in SpaceDevs proposal since the DreamChaser is a mini-shuttle with a more complex shape. If SpaceX was not accepted after the success of COTS-2 it would probably have been a minor scandal in the making. That project is the one closest to being useable for manned transport to the ISS of all the proposals in the table. It should be funded unless they want to finish this transportation system after ISS is de-orbited.
Then we have Boeing and ATK. Well Boeing at least has Delta IV-Heavy as a proven launcher if needs be. They also supposedly have been working in their capsule for a long time for Bigelow so they are probably pretty far ahead. In comparison ATK has an unproven vehicle with lousy first stage failure modes (it’s a solid) terrible vibration environment (not a smooth ride) a second stage that isn’t done either, a capsule which… well. Then there is the fact that the government already shoveled billions to ATK for Ares and they did not even get their lousy 5 segment SRB, which they told us would be a simple improvement with low R&D costs, to fly successfully even once. The only plus is they already have a solid ejection tower. I think.
If you analyze the proposals technical and economic merits ATK will never win the competition. Of course as someone once said every project like this has three dimensions: technical, economic, political. Let’s hope the political aspect will not win (again).
Had Boeing got the CEV contract all those years back we would have a capsule working now. Gotta love Mike Griffin… Canceling the fly-off between two-subcontractors in the original proposal was pure genius.
Boeing wisely designed their CST-100 capsule to work on the Delta IV (not even the Heavy), Atlas V and Falcon 9 boosters. This not only lets them select the most cost-effective booster, it prevents them from being grounded should one booster suffer a failure. Smart. Very smart.
So will ATK get to spread the smear that SpaceX was originally NOT chosen, but because of Musk’s “connections” with the Obama administration, SpaceX got put in ATK’s place?
I think you just started spreading that one. 🙂
I spoke to ATK the other day. They did not make any such statement and seemed to be taking the loss with good grace.
Anton Ego said that critics “thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”
ATK indicated that they hope to continue development with private funding. So, their success or failure will depend entirely on investors and their own engineering. It’s hard. See anything wrong with that.