Blue Origin has failed in its lawsuit against NASA over SpaceX’s lunar lander contract. CNBC reports the Federal Courtroom of Claims has dominated in opposition to Blue Origin, dismissing the corporate’s claims. Whereas the opinion is presently sealed, Blue Origin’s case had revolved round accusations NASA ignored “key flight security necessities” when handing the Human Touchdown System to SpaceX.
The opinion can be publicly accessible someday after November 18th, when each side of the lawsuit are anticipated to produce redactions. NASA put SpaceX’s work on hold following the lawsuit, however efforts ought to resume November eighth.
Blue Origin beforehand challenged the contract via the Authorities Accountability Workplace solely to be rejected in July, main Jeff Bezos‘ outfit to reply with a lawsuit. The agency even tried drastically undercutting SpaceX with a $2 billion bid, arguing on the time that NASA has traditionally awarded contracts to a number of companions to verify a mission launches on time.
The result is not shocking given NASA’s personal skepticism. The company believed Blue Origin was gambling with its preliminary $5.9 billion proposal on flawed assumptions that NASA would each haggle down the value and obtain the funding wanted to cowl a costlier bid. Blue Origin disagreed with the evaluation and felt it made a great supply, however that also suggests NASA most popular SpaceX for its decrease pricing as an alternative of any unfair standards.
In an announcement, Blue Origin portrayed the ruling as a partial victory. The case allegedly “highlighted the essential questions of safety” in HLS procurement. and confirmed the necessity for an “unprejudiced” course of that spurred competitors and included backup techniques. The corporate was additionally eager to tout its continued involvement with the Artemis program, together with improvement of lunar useful resource techniques, robotics and sensors. It isn’t clear if Blue Origin will problem the end result (we have requested about this), however we would not be shocked if there was an enchantment. You possibly can learn the complete assertion under.
Our lawsuit with the Courtroom of Federal Claims highlighted the essential questions of safety with the Human Touchdown System procurement course of that should nonetheless be addressed. Returning astronauts safely to the Moon via NASA’s public-private partnership mannequin requires an unprejudiced procurement course of alongside sound coverage that includes redundant techniques and promotes competitors. Blue Origin stays deeply dedicated to the success of the Artemis program, and we’ve got a broad base of exercise on a number of contracts with NASA to realize the USA’ aim to return to the Moon to remain. We’re absolutely engaged with NASA to mature sustainable lander designs, conduct all kinds of expertise threat reductions, and supply Industrial Lunar Payload Providers. We’re additionally beneath contract with NASA to develop in-situ useful resource utilization expertise, lunar house robotics, and lunar touchdown sensor collaboration together with testing on New Shepard. We look ahead to listening to from NASA on subsequent steps within the HLS procurement course of.
