An ability to get on contract quickly and a price far lower that other companies were key factors in NASA’s decision to award a contract to Maxar Technologies for the first element of the lunar Gateway, the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE). A source selection statement released by NASA May 23 outlined the agency’s assessment of proposals for the PPE submitted by Maxar and four other companies: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). The document shows that Maxar, identified in the document as Space Systems Loral (SSL), the former name of its satellite manufacturing...