Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin sued NASA this week over its awarding SpaceX the coveted lunar lander contract for its 2024 Artemis mission.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is suing NASA over its awarding the Artemis lunar lander contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year, a major escalation in the fight over the privilege of returning humanity to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The lawsuit brought in federal court this week follows after Blue Origin’s original protest was rejected by federal regulators, The Verge reports. The new lawsuit may put a hold on further funds going to SpaceX for the development of its Starship lunar lander project, potentially putting the expected mission date beyond the 2024 target set by NASA for the Artemis Moon mission. The exact nature of Blue Origin’s complaint isn’t known, since the lawsuit was filed under a protective order, but appears to protest “NASA’s unlawful and improper evaluation of [Artemis lunar lander] proposals submitted” for consideration. Three companies bid for the lunar lander contract: Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Dynetics, a defense contractor. Blue Origin’s bid of $5.9 billion lost out to the $2.9 billion bid from SpaceX, which led Blue Origin to offer to cover up to $2 billion in costs, effectively lowering its bid to $3.9 billion. This still wasn’t enough to move NASA to reconsider. Blue Origin’s complaint seems to focus on NASA’s original intention to have two different companies develop lunar landers, presumably picking the most successful of the two for the actual Artemis missions that first land an uncrewed ship on the Moon before attempting a crewed mission if the first is successful.
