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Jeff Bezos is probably furious.
His space company, Blue Origin, initially challenged NASA’s April decision to award SpaceX the Human Landing System contract, a multibillion-dollar deal to build a lander capable of bringing the first astronauts to the surface of the moon. from the Apollo missions.
In early May, NASA asked SpaceX to cease all work on the contract after protests from Blue Origin and Alabama-based space contractor Dynetics resulted in a temporary suspension, effectively putting 2’s contract on hold. $ 9 billion.
Now, the protest filed by the space company headed by Jeff Bezos has been rejected by the GAO, effectively handing the contract over to SpaceX – and SpaceX alone.
Even before the GAO decision, Blue Origin has repeatedly tried to win the favor of lawmakers, arguing that the competition is good and that relying solely on SpaceX to land astronauts on the moon is a bad idea.
In its latest attempt, the company released an infographic claiming that SpaceX’s variant of the lunar spacecraft is “extremely complex and high-risk” while its Blue Moon lander is “safe, low-risk” and “fast,” as first spotted on the company’s website by NASASpaceFlightIt’s Adrian Beil.
“There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments and operations that have never been done before to bring Starship to the moon,” the infographic reads.
In the graphic, the company says Starship would have to fly the Starship “more than 10 times without fail” to allow a single spacecraft to have enough fuel to send astronauts to the moon.
This is largely due to the need to have a supply vessel in Earth orbit. Orbital refueling has always been part of the plan. In fact, in October, NASA awarded SpaceX a $ 53 million contract for an orbital refueling test of a spacecraft.
But how Blue Origin arrived at its claims that Starship needs to be refueled at least eight times in orbit to get it to the Moon, as the infographic suggests, is unclear. SpaceX has yet to reveal exact figures on how many refueling maneuvers a lunar spacecraft will need to perform en route to the lunar surface. Futurism has contacted SpaceX for comment.
The news comes after Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson begging him to give his space company a chance by offering him $ 2 billion to change his mind about the contract.
In short, Blue Origin isn’t ready to accept defeat – and its repeated efforts to undercut the competition don’t look particularly good, either.
“Here’s the deal,” Eric Berger, space editor at Ars Technica. written in a tweet, referring to the last infographic. “The majority of Blue Origin employees I have met are bright, friendly and hardworking people who have joined the company because they believe in its mission. They also respect what SpaceX does and probably find that sort of thing embarrassing. “
Meanwhile, SpaceX has made significant progress in preparing for its first attempt at an orbital test launch. The company led by Elon Musk deployed the first orbital-class Super Heavy booster earlier this week, a gigantic rocket stage meant to put Starship into orbit.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander, on the other hand, does not yet exist beyond a flashy mock-up model, which was delivered to NASA for testing in August. The BE-7 rocket motor to power Blue Moon was also put to the test in a static fire test in December.
Overall, the repeated cries of the company run by Bezos are becoming increasingly difficult to justify. NASA had its hands tied, being given a tiny fraction of what it had asked for to develop the lunar lander. With meager funds, NASA made the decision to award the contract to the lowest bidder, namely SpaceX.
Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, is still determined to appropriate taxpayer dollars to cover the costs of developing his lunar lander – and getting SpaceX to get the first seat at the table becomes clearly too much to bear.
READ MORE: Bezos’ Blue Origin Calls Musk’s Spacecraft “Immensely Complex and High Risk” for NASA Lunar Missions
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