Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company has filed a lawsuit against the US government over the NASA Moon lander contract. Blue Origin is also preparing to fight NASA.
NASA backtracks on arbitrary decisions after Blue Origin filed lawsuits in US court.
NASA has awarded the contract for the design of the moon landing mission to be launched on the moon by NASA to several companies without awarding the contract to Blue Origin.
Originally the contract was said to be distributed to two companies rather than one but when the results finally came out SpaceX-Blue Origin’s long-time rival bagged the contract in a sweep leaving no room for other space companies.
Forczyk said that “it was a shock that only Space X was given the contract when it was decided that two companies would be given.”
Forczyk later added that NASA was not just looking for one round trip but for a company that developed the aircraft that can be used repetitively and hence NASA would have found SpaceX very competitive among others considering their milestones.
This did not sit well with the other two companies Blue Origin and Dynetics’.
By July 26th Bezos penned a letter to NASA waving of a whopping 2 billion dollars but when NASA did not reply he escalated his act by filing a lawsuit against it in the federal court on August 16th.
NASA’s spokesperson recently announced that the mission will be halted for an undefined time as they have received a stay from a federal court judge against Bezos’s lawsuit. Blue Origin will step in for NASA’s unilateral approach. On October 14 there is said to be a session over the dispute of human landing mission to the moon.
NASA will launch the Artemis program in 2024 for the manned moon lander mission.
Apart from the Human Landing System contract, NASA has awarded contracts to five companies a combined $ 146 million for the design of a manned moon lander to land on the moon. Five companies include Blue Origin and SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX won a $ 9.4 million contract, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin won a $ 25.6 million contract. These companies will design sustainable landing designs. As part of its Artemis mission, contracts worth $ 40.8 million to Dynamics, $ 35.2 million to Lockheed Martin, and $ 34.8 million to Northrop Grumman to develop moon landing designs. This can have a major influence on future missions and contracts.
However, the Human Landing System contract dispute between Bezos and NASA will be set as per before.
While Blue Origin’ employees are leaving the company due to unhealthy work ethics and other internal reasons the owner of the company is busy suing its long-time rival Elon Musk’s ventures and other companies that are welcoming SpaceX with open hands.
Also Read: Jeff Bezos Receiving Backlash Over His Space Travel
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