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Blue Origin said SpaceX’s lunar landing craft is “extremely complex and high-risk.”
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Bezos’ space company lobbied NASA to let it compete with Musk’s on a $ 2.9 billion deal.
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NASA awarded the contract to SpaceX in April, triggering an official complaint from Blue Origin.
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin reignited his war of words with Elon Musk’s SpaceX by attacking the abilities of SpaceX’s Starship.
Blue Origin posted an infographic on its website, first spotted by CNBC on Wednesday, which opposes the use of Starship to land NASA astronauts on the moon.
In the graphic, Blue Origin describes Starship as “extremely complex and high risk”. The quote is derived from a NASA analysis released in April that nonetheless recommended awarding SpaceX an exclusive $ 2.9 billion contract to help bring astronauts back to the moon.
The text on the Blue Origin infographic reads: “There is an unprecedented number of technologies, developments and operations that have never been done before to make Starship land on the moon.” The spacecraft will need to refuel in orbit if it is to reach the moon, which Blue Origin cited as an example of an unprecedented process.
Blue Origin also said that SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch site had never launched a spacecraft fully into orbit – although, as CNBC noted, Blue Origin also never performed an orbital flight. .
Bezos was on board Blue Origin’s first passenger flight to space last month, but the craft did not enter orbit.
Read more: The startup that built Elon Musk’s Tiny House now has a waiting list of 50,000, even though its factory is not yet operating and has only built 3 houses
In its infographic, Blue Origin said its own lunar lander, which looks more like lunar landers from previous NASA lunar missions, has a crew hatch 32 feet above the ground, while SpaceX’s massive Starship has a hatch 126 feet from the ground.
In April, Blue Origin filed a formal complaint about the selection of SpaceX to work on the NASA moon landings, but it was rejected by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) in late July.
Blue Origin has been pushing fiercely for NASA to open the contract to other vendors, with Jeff Bezos offering to fund billions of dollars from his personal wealth. Even after the GAO ruling, the company maintained that NASA “made a flawed acquisition and ignored the significant risks of a single-vendor model,” according to CNBC.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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