![]() ![]() In a statement released after the court ruling Thursday, Blue Origin said its lawsuit highlighted “important safety issues” in the HLS procurement, which the company said NASA has not yet addressed. ![]() NASA said it hoped to pick at least two HLS teams to proceed in development of a crewed moon lander, but Congress did not appropriate enough funding in fiscal year 2021 to support two contracts. Blue Origin, which has not yet flown a rocket into orbit or developed a deep space vehicle, released an infographic the same month that said SpaceX’s HLS proposal is “immensely complex and high risk.” SpaceX is already privately developing the reusable Starship heavy-lift launch system, which will send the lunar lander into space, then refuel the ship’s methane and liquid oxygen tanks over a series of launches, supplying propellant to power engines for the descent and takeoff at the moon.Īfter losing a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA in August with the Court of Federal Claims over what it said were flaws in the agency’s procurement approach. NASA said in April that SpaceX will self-fund and assume financial risk for more than half of the Starship moon lander’s development and testing. But the Blue Origin-led team’s bid totaled $5.9 billion, more than double the value of the contract NASA ultimately awarded to SpaceX. The space agency announced it awarded SpaceX the $2.9 billion HLS contract April 16, choosing the Starship concept over competing bids led by Blue Origin and Dynetics.īlue Origin assembled a team of industry juggernauts, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper, in a “National Team” of contractors to design a human-rated lunar lander. NASA said it will resume work with SpaceX on the HLS contract, known as “Option A” in NASA’s procurement language, as soon as possible. “Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract,” Bezos tweeted. The judge threw out Blue Origin’s lawsuit in a ruling Thursday, and Bezos signaled that Blue Origin will not appeal the decision. Court of Federal Claims rejected a lawsuit filed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, that challenged NASA’s award of the Human Landing System contract to SpaceX. The Human Landing System is the final core element to be developed for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon. The decision apparently ends a six-month delay in the start of NASA’s contract with SpaceX for a human-rated moon landing vehicle based on the company’s Starship mega-rocket. Credit: SpaceXĪ federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Blue Origin over NASA’s award of a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to SpaceX, clearing the way for the agency to move forward in a partnership with Elon Musk’s space company on a craft to transport astronauts to the surface of the moon. ![]() In a redacted, public version of its protest document, emailed to, Blue Origin states that "During the proposal preparation and submission process, NASA had indicated an overriding intention to make two awards, but due to perceived shortfalls in currently available and anticipated future budget appropriations, it made only the award to SpaceX.A Starship prototype descends toward SpaceX’s test site in South Texas for a landing attempt in March 2021. We respect this process and look forward to a fair and informed resolution of the matter," the company said, adding that this would be the only comment they would make on the matter.īlue Origin also took issue with the fact that NASA chose just one instead of two competitors for the contract. "Dynetics has issues and concerns with several aspects of the acquisition process as well as elements of NASA's technical evaluation and filed a protest with the GAO to address them. ![]() It came as a surprise to some when NASA chose just one of the three companies for the contract instead of two. The "continued competition" that Dynetics is referencing is the idea that NASA was originally planning on choosing two of the three competitors for the contract, to continue the competition and have a backup lander design. ![]()
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