Bezos Suing NASA For Allegedly Favoring SpaceX Over Blue Origin In Moon Contract
Image via Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos’ space firm, Blue Origin, is now suing NASA. This spat stems from NASA’s decision to award a US$2.9 billion lunar lander contract to Bezos’ arguably strongest rival: Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX.
In April this year, NASA announced that it had chosen SpaceX to develop the next commercial human landers to take astronauts to the moon as part of the organization’s mission.
According to the press release from this time, the plan was to launch four astronauts into lunar orbit using NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Two of them would then transfer to the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) to complete their journey to the moon.
The BBC reports that this contract was originally supposed to be awarded to two companies, which looked to be SpaceX and Blue Origin, but the agency fell short in funding. Out of the requested US$3.3 billion, Congress had only awarded it US$850 million.
It’s speculated that SpaceX’s proven record of orbital missions was a large factor in obtaining the award. However, there is also the consideration of cost: SpaceX's bid was priced much lower than Blue Origin’s.
In July, Bezos had reportedly offered to pay up to US$2 billion of NASA’s costs if it meant his company would be reconsidered for the contract. But this was rejected, and may have been the “last straw” that incited this lawsuit.
It also reports that in Friday’s court filing, Blue Origin said it believed that two providers were required in order to build the landing system. Then, the company slammed NASA with an accusation of “unlawful and improper evaluation” of its proposals.
Back in April, Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate, had said that the award was a “critical step” and would carve out a path to sustainable lunar exploration and make the rest of the solar system more accessible in the future.
NASA and SpaceX have yet to comment on the lawsuit, but NASA will need to file a response by October 12.
[via BBC, image via Blue Origin]
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