Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the two wealthiest people on this planet, each want their own companies to be at the center of NASA’s
plans to return astronauts to the moon. But NASA only has enough money for one of them, and it went with Musk’s SpaceX. Blue Origin has fought that decision ever since, saying NASA unfairly favored SpaceX, and argued that the space agency would be better served by funding both SpaceX and Blue Origin’s plans to develop vehicles capable of landing on the moon.
But all of Blue Origin’s efforts thus far to overturn NASA’s decision have fallen flat.
The legal dispute had put NASA and SpaceX’s work on the contract for the Human Landing System (HLS), as the program is called, on hold. That work will now resume “as soon as possible,” the space agency said in a statement.
Details about the lawsuit, which was
filed in federal claims court in August, have been sparse, as the companies asked the judge to keep much of the proceedings secret. A Thursday filing said lawyers will meet on November 18 so they can come to an agreement on releasing a redacted version of the judge’s opinion.
In a statement, a Blue Origin spokesperson said its lawsuit “highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed,” though the company also said it still strongly supports NASA’s plans to go back to the moon.
“Returning astronauts safely to the Moon through NASA’s public-private partnership model requires an unprejudiced procurement process alongside sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition,” the statement said. “We look forward to hearing from NASA on next steps in the (Human Landing System) HLS procurement process.”
Bezos also weighed in with a tweet,
saying it’s “not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract.”
The backstory
The companies gave NASA two wildly different proposals for getting boots on the moon. SpaceX plans to use the Starship, a gargantuan rocket and spacecraft system in development that Musk hopes will go on to colonize Mars one day. And Blue Origin gave a more straightforward plan to develop a
lunar lander much like those used for the mid-20th century
NASA Apollo missions, which remain the only missions that have ever put humans on the moon.
Though Blue Origin did initially receive some development money from NASA, the current drama was kicked off whenCongress allotted NASA about
two billion dollars less for HLS than the $3.4 billion it had requested. In April the
space agency chose to go with only one contractor, SpaceX, for HLS.
SpaceX’s bid was by far the cheapest at $3 billion. Blue Origin’s offer came in at $6 billion.
NASA has repeatedly said cost was a large motivating factor in its decision to choose SpaceX as the sole awardee for the HLS program.
Blue Origin…
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