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Former NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson on Jeff Bezos’ first crewed Blue Origin flight.
Federal agency has confirmed decision to make Elon Musk’s SpaceX the sole winner of a contract to develop a National Aeronautics and Space Administration lander for the return to the moon, a setback for Jeff Bezos’ space company .
The move by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday followed protests that a subsidiary of Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC and Dynetics, a unit of Leidos Holdings Inc., filed after NASA in April awarded a SpaceX’s $ 2.9 billion contract for the lander.
A spokesperson for Blue Origin did not respond to a request for comment. Dynetics said it respects the GAO decision and plans to compete for other lander opportunities and moon-related jobs.
This artist’s rendering shows the design of SpaceX’s mega-rocket on Earth’s moon. (SpaceX via AP, file)
Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin is pursuing a broad program for space, and winning part of the lander contract was important to the company’s ambitions. Blue Origin’s partners for its lander included Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
In a letter sent on Monday, Mr Bezos made a personal appeal to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson regarding the contract, offering to forgo up to $ 2 billion in payments over the next two years or so and to finance another mission of the lander in low earth orbit.
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Mr Nelson declined to comment on the letter during a briefing Thursday. He previously told a congressional hearing that NASA would seek more funding to support future bids for its moon landing system. NASA said Friday that GAO’s decision would allow it to set a timeline with SpaceX for the return of astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
The GAO said on Friday that NASA had not broken any laws or procurement rules in deciding to award a single contract for the lander to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as Mr Musk’s company officially calls it. NASA had opted for a single supplier despite budget constraints.
This photo provided by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space travel company Blue Origin, exits Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule after it was safely parachuted to the launch pad with passengers Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wall (Blue Origin via AP / AP Newsroom)
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Blue Origin and Dynetics filed protests with GAO against the move, arguing that the agency was required to issue multiple awards. Such protests could have forced NASA to increase the contract, but GAO concluded that the space agency was within its rights to choose only SpaceX. A SpaceX spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“NASA’s announcement provided that the number of awards the agency would grant was subject to the amount of funding available for the program,” GAO said in a statement. “In addition, the ad reserved the right to award multiple awards, a single award, or no award at all.”
Mr. Musk responded to the news by tweeting “GAO,” followed by a flexed arm emoji.
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