Jeff Bezos ’s company Blue Origin has lost its appeal to challenge NASA ’s decision to only award one lunar lander contract bridge to rival SpaceX back in April . The federal governmentruled on Fridaythat even though NASA had originally said it wanted to award multiple contract bridge to build a lunar lander that will put astronauts back on the Moon , the fact that in the end it only chose one , and that one was not Blue Origin , was utterly legal .
For those catching up with the story ( the modish saga in the billionaire quad race ) , back in April NASA awarded a$2.89 billion contractto Elon Musk ’s infinite companionship to build the first commercial human lander as part of the Artemis mission . NASA has been pretty open about its funding issues , launching thefirst - ever Commercial Crew Program crew missionlast year , opening up spaceflight to commercial-grade distance companies to share the cost .
After initially state it wanted to choose two companies for the lunar lander contract from the three companies who put forwards competing pitches ( Space X , Blue Origin , and Dynetics ) to both boost contest and act as a safety net , NASA opted for just one , SpaceX ’s proposal , which fare in at $ 2.89 billion compare to Blue Origin ’s $ 5.99 billion .
Bezos ’s companyfiled a complaintwith the US Government Accountability Office ( GAO ) against NASA , claiming that it " go the goalposts " , accusing NASA of giving SpaceX an unfair advantage by permit it to retool the pricing of its pitch after a change to NASA ’s budget . It also charge NASA of unjust literary criticism in some technological rating . ( Elon Musk ’s reactionat the time was less than mature . )
While wait for a finding of fact , Bezos on the face of it attempt to hasten up a potential repeal by NASA by bid up what some have ascertain as a not very subtle bribe – waiving $ 2 billionfrom any fees should it be pick out for the contract while also ante up for any orbital tests missions and covering cost overproduction – in anopen letterto NASA administrator Bill Nelson . This go some to suspect Bezos knew the GAO would not side with him and to offer up NASA another option .
Now , the GAO , which can review federal contract bridge , has concluded that although NASA improperly waived one requirement for SpaceX , it was not serious enough to refashion the competition – which could push back the actual development and building of a lunar lander by months . " Despite this finding , the decision also concludes that the protesters could not establish any reasonable possibility of competitive prejudice arising from this limited discrepancy in the evaluation , ” the GAO said in astatement .
" After noting that SpaceX submit the lowest - priced proposal of marriage with the eminent military rank , and that the offer submitted by Blue Origin and Dynetics were importantly higher in price , NASA also conclude that the agency lacked the necessary funding to make more than one award . "
This does n’t mean that NASA has conclusively refused to reconsider Blue Origin ’s involvement , but the GAO has provided the get - out - jail - destitute card should it not want to . And it does n’t sound like it want to , as per a statement release Friday good afternoon .
" The decision enables NASA to award the declaration that will ultimately result in the first crewed demonstration landing on the open of the Moon under NASA ’s Artemis program . Importantly , the GAO ’s determination will grant NASA and SpaceX to launch a timeline for the first crewed landing place on the Moon in more than 50 years , " NASA tell in thestatement .
With Blue Origin’sfirst crew spaceflightunder its belt , it ’s likely Bezos ’s company will be involved with NASA ’s plans for space travel in the future tense , but withVirgin Galacticnipping at its blackguard , Boeing post its first - ever Starliner crewed ejection seat ( without homo onboard ) todock with the ISS tomorrow , and evenPorsche entering the outer space subspecies , the phone number of commercial quad company it will have to find fault from is only increase , so there are no warranty .
