In Jeff’s world, it’s not ‚you snooze, you lose‘, it’s ‚you lose, you sues‘
Updated Blue Origin sued NASA late on Friday, claiming the space agency unfairly awarded top rival SpaceX a $2.94bn contract to develop the next lunar lander. That lander will – fingers crossed – be part of NASA’s flagship Artemis mission to put the first woman and next American man on the Moon. Three teams, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, submitted plans for the spacecraft. Ever since the contract was given to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in April, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has fought tooth and nail to reverse NASA’s decision. First, Blue Origin filed an official protest with the US Government Accountability Office. Dynetics, the third competitor for the contract, also filed a complaint. Bezos even wrote NASA an open letter offering a $2bn discount. But the Amazon supremo was snubbed, the auditors dismissed Blue Origin’s complaints, and earlier this month NASA was given the green light to continue working with SpaceX on the lander. Unwilling to accept defeat, Blue Origin has now decided to take NASA to court to challenge the contract award. The lawsuit was, last time we checked, sealed. “Blue Origin filed suit in the US Court of Federal Claims in an attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA’s Human Landing System,” a company spokesperson told The Register.
