Sierra Nevada Corp is crying foul over NASA recently awarding two multi-billion dollar contracts to shuttle American astronauts to and from the International Space Station to rival companies Space X and Boeing.

“Dream Chaser design provides a wider range of capabilities and value including preserving the heritage of the space shuttle program through its design as a piloted, reusable, lifting-body spacecraft that embodies the advanced technologies of today and flexibility that enables the innovations of the future,” the company said in a statement.

Sierra Nevada corp is protesting the award, and will ask for a reevaluation of the contracts by federal officials to ensure all factors were properly taken into account. Meanwhile, NASA officials disagree. The company alleges it could offer comparable services for nearly $1 billion less than the awarded contracts to Beoing ($4.2 billion) and SpaceX ($2.6 billion). The protest highlights the growing competition in the commercial space industry that NASA is currenntly spurring on.

“NASA has set the stage for what promises to be the most ambitious and exciting chapter in the history of human space flight,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, when awarding the contracts in mid-September.

NASA has unleashed a flood of contract solicitations into the private market place, in hopes to foment a broader national interest in the private space flight industry. If NASA can capture the heats, minds, and imaginations of the private sector, then it will be able to leverage the resulting freed capacity to explore other exciting scientific opportunities across the Solar System.

“Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry also will allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission – sending humans to Mars,” said Bolden.