They offered $2 billion… NASA agrees to contract with SpaceX lunar lander

Blue Origin and Dynetics protested against NASA’s grant of SpaceX a program to develop a manned lunar landing system, but the GAO’s decision to dismiss the objection was rejected. got off Authorities said that NASA’s contract with SpaceX was the result of a reasonable evaluation and that it was in accordance with the procurement laws, regulations and terms of the contract.

When protesting against NASA’s decision in April, Blue Origin protested, claiming that the selection process was fundamentally unfair, arguing that they initially signed a contract with two companies, but only selected one. However, in response to this protest, GAO asserted that there is no need to discuss, modify, or cancel the NASA announcement because the budget available for the project is limited. The GAO also stated in its financial press release that the role of the GAO is not to judge the relative merits of contract decisions.

In response to the ruling, Blue Origin said it was confident there was a fundamental problem with NASA’s decision, but said the GAO jurisdiction was small and thus failed to address the problem. He added that the company will continue to insist that it makes sense for two companies to sign a contract.

The decision comes days after Amazon’s former CEO and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said he would give up on receiving $2 billion from NASA’s development budget in exchange for a lunar lander contract to Blue Origin and that Jeff Bezos would pay for it himself. In response to the Blue Origin protest, NASA ordered SpaceX to halt development of a manned lunar lander until the same day the GAO made its decision.

The ruling will allow NASA and SpaceX to resume lunar lander development projects unless Blue Origin asks the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case. Related information can be found here.