NASA Pauses Lunar Lander Project As Bezos And Musk Battle Continues
Image via Blue Origin
Last week, it was reported that Jeff Bezos’ space venture, Blue Origin, was suing NASA over the US$2.9 billion lunar lander contract it had awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Now, due to the lawsuit, NASA has to stop work on the lunar lander once again, further bringing the agency’s timeline into doubt.
In April this year, NASA had announced that it awarded the Human Lander System (HLS) contract to SpaceX, which would help build the spacecraft needed to ferry astronauts on the Artemis 3 mission in 2024. The project will now have to be paused for two and a half months in order to resolve the dispute.
An independent government agency had rejected Blue Origin’s first complaint in July regarding the contract. Since then, Bezos’ space firm has sued NASA at the Court of Federal Claims, which exclusively hears cases pertaining to the US government.
In a statement to Space.com, NASA officials said: “NASA has voluntarily paused work with SpaceX for the human landing system (HLS) Option A contract effect August 19 through November 1.”
“In exchange for this temporary stay of work, all parties agreed to an expedited litigation schedule that concludes on November 1. NASA officials are continuing to work with the Department of Justice to review the details of the case, and look forward to a timely resolution of this matter.”
With this delay, along with others involving components of the mission such as spacesuits, it seems unlikely that NASA will hit its goal of returning US astronauts to the Moon by 2024.
Let’s hope this is the last installment in the saga between the agency, Blue Origin, and SpaceX.
[via Space, cover image via Blue Origin]
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