originally this calendar month , SpaceX was award a$2.89 billion contractto arise the landing place system alongside NASA to put mankind on the Moon once again as part of the Artemis mission . The announcement was met with great excitement , as the Artemis missionary work is soar upwards forward and it for sure looks possible that it will go in advance as planned .
However , one party was not so enthralled with the decision .
Blue Origin , the spaceflight company owned by Jeff Bezos , has filed acomplaintwith the Government Accountability Office against NASA , claiming that they " moved the goalpost " by awarding SpaceX the only contract bridge for the lander . Originally , NASA was expect to pick two out of the possible three companies ( SpaceX , Blue Origin , and Dynetics ) compete for the contract , but made an so-called last - minute conclusion to opt for just the SpaceX proposal .
“ In NASA ’s own parole , it has made a ‘ high risk ’ selection . Their determination eradicate chance for rivalry , significantly narrows the supply base , and not only holdup , but also endanger America ’s recurrence to the Moon . Because of that , we ’ve filed a protest with the GAO , ” Blue Origin said in a statement toCNBC .
Blue Origin ’s human landing system ( HLS ) marriage proposal was markedly more expensive than SpaceX ’s , coming in at a sizeable $ 5.99 billion compare to SpaceX ’s $ 2.89 billion , but Blue Origin states that even if NASA prefer for both proposal of marriage , the total cost would come under that of former collaborations .
Check out the technical school demos for Blue Origin ’s Artemis proposal . picture Credit : Blue Origin
So what on the nose does Blue Origin believe was so amiss about the choice process ? Well , the protest make a number of gunpoint .
Firstly , Blue Origin conceive they were " deprived of a full and fair opportunity " to make redress to their program following a variety in the budget . fundamentally , they believe that NASA changed the criteria but run out to allow them know , resulting in an odd playing dry land .
Next , they believe the ratings given during their expert evaluation were unfair and should have been higher in some domain , as well as some criticisms being unfounded . The disputation come in the same vein , with their direction evaluations also being " unreasonable " . Blue Origin also consider it was plow unfairly , submit they conceive their " abort strategy " should have been mark as a intensity level , whilst SpaceX should have received critical review for theirs .
at long last , they state that the decision to go for one company only is anti - competitive , which only exchange due to likely budget constraints .
NASA has n’t responded in public yet , but Elon Musk has .
Musk , a man known for settling matter on social media , reply in atweetstating Blue Origin " Ca n’t get it up ( to orbit ) lol , " poking fun at their want of a successful launching into orbit in any of their rockets . He also follow up with a picture of Blue Origin ’s lunar lander , photoshopped with " Blue Balls " on it .
Blue Origin is currently working towards its first human flight of steps onboard its rocket New Shepherd , while SpaceX lately launched itsthird successful crewed flightto the International Space Station .
