When it comes to space policy in Congress, you rarely hear the name of Senator Chris Dodd. However, when a business in his home state is involved, the Connecticut Democrat spring into action. Dodd’s office issued a press release calling for “fairness” in the upcoming recompete of a spacesuit contract that involved Connecticut company Hamilton Sundstrand. In June NASA awarded a contract for the Constellation Space Suit System to Oceaneering International, beating out a rival bid from Exploration Systems and Technology, a joint venture between Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, who had been making spacesuits for NASA for decades. The losers filed a protest with the GAO, but before that protest review was completed NASA terminated the Oceaneering contract, citing only “a compliance issue”.

Dodd’s release included the full text of a letter he sent to NASA administration Mike Griffin, outlining his concerns with the original procurement, including a potential conflict of interest involving one member of the review board for the contract. In the press release portion of the statement, Dodd states that he is “convinced that Hamilton Sundstrand can win this competition fair and square and will continue manufacturing the suits that protect America’s astronauts for years to come.”

Ironically, while Hamilton Sundstrand is based in Connecticut, so is one of the subcontractors to Oceaneering: Air-Lock, Inc., in Milton, CT.