- Jeff Bezos suffered losses in protest against NASA’s award of the SpaceX lunar lander contract.
- Blue Origin has stated that it is unfair for NASA to award a contract worth US$2.9 billion (R42.3 billion) to a company.
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the news with a curved biceps emoji on Twitter.
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Jeff Bezos has just been hit in his efforts to challenge SpaceX’s major victory.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Friday denied Bezos’s Blue Origin’s protest, which disputed NASA’s decision to award the lunar lander contract to SpaceX separately.
The office said in a statement: “GAO first concluded that NASA did not violate procurement laws or regulations when it decided to award only one award.” statement.
Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX is Was selected for a contract of US$2.9 billion (R42.3 billion) In April, defeated defense contractors Dynetics and Blue Origin. The contract is part of NASA’s goal of returning astronauts to the moon through the agency’s Artemis program as early as 2024. NASA’s decision is shocking because it is expected that the agency will choose two of the three companies, not just one.
Soon after, Blue Origin and Dynetics protested, questioning this decision. Blue Origin stated that NASA was required to award contracts to multiple companies based on its initially stated preferences.
In announcing its choice of SpaceX, NASA stated that because Congress has limited funding for the program, it only chose one company.
Blue Origin said that NASA has never negotiated with the company on the price of its manned landing system. NASA expects the system to cost the agency 6 billion U.S. dollars (88.7 billion rand), about twice the price of SpaceX. Blue Origin said that NASA did allow SpaceX to negotiate.
“This announcement reserves the right to award multiple awards, a single award, or no awards at all,” the GAO statement continued. “When making the award decision, NASA concluded that it only has sufficient funds for one contract award. GAO further concluded that, due to the limited amount of funds available for obtaining, NASA does not need to participate in the discussion, modification or cancellation of the announcement. The program.”
The office added that “the evaluation of all three proposals is reasonable and in compliance with applicable procurement laws, regulations and announcement terms.”
A sort of Blue origin The spokesperson told Insider that the company will “continue to advocate for two direct suppliers because we believe this is the right solution.”
The spokesperson said: “We firmly believe that NASA’s decision has fundamental problems, but due to its limited jurisdiction, GAO cannot solve these problems.” “The Human Landing System project needs competition now, not later-this is NASA’s The best solution is also the best solution for our country.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Responding to GAO’s decision on Twitter, Just write “GAO” and add the curved biceps emoji.
Just a few days ago, Bezos Willing to pay up to 2 billion US dollars (29 billion rand) in costs If NASA gives Blue Origin another chance to contract for the lunar lander.
Dynetics did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
