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The federal government on Friday rejected billionaire Jeff Bezos’ appeal to Blue Origin to partner with NASA’s plan to send astronauts back to the moon using Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In April, NASA awarded the $ 2.9 billion contract for a lunar lander to the more established SpaceX, which also offered a cheaper price than offers from Blue Origin and Dynetics Inc., a subsidiary of Leidos. The two losing companies appealed the contract to the Government Accountability Office on the grounds that there should have been more than one contract and the proposals had not been evaluated properly, but the agency rejected their request.
The move will allow “NASA and SpaceX to set a schedule for the first crewed moon landing in more than 50 years,” NASA said in a statement Friday, calling the moon landing a priority for the Biden administration. .
Friday’s decision revealed that although NASA initially said it was going to award multiple contracts, it did not have enough money and that awarding a single contract was legal. Further, it found that NASA’s assessment of the three bids “was reasonable and in compliance with applicable government procurement regulations and the terms of the announcement,” according to a statement by GAO attorney Kenneth Patton.
SpaceX’s bid received the highest rating while the other bids “were considerably more expensive,” as the space agency decided it could not afford to award multiple contracts as originally planned, according to the GAO announcement.
Blue Origin, which has tried to get Congress to demand a second lander contract, is still hoping NASA will change its mind and offer “concurrent competition,” company spokeswoman Linda Mills said. .
“We remain firmly convinced that there were fundamental problems with the NASA decision, but GAO was unable to resolve them due to its limited jurisdiction,” Mills said in a statement. “We continue to advocate for two immediate suppliers because we believe this is the right solution.”
The lunar lander is part of the agency’s beyond-Earth exploration plans, refocused on the moon by the Trump administration. The Artemis program involves a huge new rocket that would launch four astronauts aboard an Orion space capsule into the orbit of the moon. The lander would take two astronauts to the surface of the moon, where they would explore for about a week, reconnect to Orion in lunar orbit, and return to Earth.
The SpaceX lander, called the Starship, “includes a spacious cabin” and can be expanded into a fully reusable launch system for travel to the moon, Mars and other locations, NASA said upon contract award.
A test flight of the capsule, without astronauts on board, is scheduled for this year, with an astronaut test flight to the moon – but without landing – scheduled for 2023, according to NASA.
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.
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The Associated Press’s Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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