SpaceX's congressional detractors have taken the offensive in the wake of the June 28 failure of the company's Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Several House members wrote NASA and the U.S. Air Force in July to question whether the two organizations - both important SpaceX customers - would apply sufficient rigor in assessing the failure and the company's corrective action plans. In August, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called out NASA for allegedly being tougher on Orbital ATK following the failure of that company's Antares rocket, also on a space station resupply mission, than on SpaceX. Finally, two U.S. senators in September asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program in light of both accidents.
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