Protest Leads to Rivals Joining Up for NASA's New Spacesuit

(MoneyWatch)  Oceaneering International and Hamilton Sunstrand bid on the contract for NASA's new spacesuit in support of the future Moon and Mars missions. Oceaneering won and Sunstrand protested. This protest led to a withdrawal of the original contract and a new competition. The Houston Business Journal reports that the two companies have now teamed on this new contract. Of course while this settles the issues with the protest it does limit competition for the contract. This has happened in the past on DoD contracts where the loser and winner eventually end up teaming to meet the contract needs. While it is good for the two companies as they both up getting work, it may hurt the taxpayer as the price may not have been as good if the two companies were bidding against each other.