A judge has ruled against Blue Origin in the ongoing standoff with SpaceX and NASA
A judge has ruled against Blue Origin in the ongoing standoff with SpaceX and NASA
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, a federal judge on Thursday dealt a significant blow to Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, by siding with NASA in a dispute over who will build the lander that will transport humans back to the moon.
NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are of particular interest to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the world's two wealthiest people, who both want their respective companies to be central to those plans. NASA, on the other hand, only has funding for one of them, and it chose Musk's SpaceX to receive it. In the years since, Blue Origin has fought NASA's decision, claiming that the space agency favored SpaceX unfairly and arguing that the space agency would be better served if it funded both SpaceX and Blue Origin's plans to develop moon-landing vehicles at the same time.
At this point, however, Blue Origin's efforts to have NASA's decision overturned have proven fruitless.
Because of the legal dispute, NASA and SpaceX had put their work on the contract for the Human Landing System (HLS), as the program is known, on hold until the situation was resolved. According to a statement from the space agency that work will now resume "as soon as reasonably possible."
The lawsuit, which was filed in August in federal claims court, has been kept under wraps because the companies requested that the judge keep much of the proceedings confidential. The lawsuit was filed in August in federal claims court. The release of a redacted version of the judge's opinion will be discussed at a meeting on November 18, according to a filing made on Thursday.
According to a Blue Origin spokesperson, the lawsuit "highlighted critical safety concerns with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed," though the company also stated that it remains a strong supporter of NASA's plans to return to the moon in a separate statement.
NASA's public-private partnership model for returning astronauts to the Moon requires an unbiased procurement process, as well as sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition, according to a statement released by the agency. It is our expectation that NASA will communicate with us regarding the next steps in the procurement process for the (Human Landing System) HLS.
The decision was met with displeasure by Bezos, who responded with a tweet, saying that while it was "not what we desired," he "respects the court's decision" and wished NASA and SpaceX "every success on the contract."
An explanation of the historical context
The companies presented NASA with two proposals for landing astronauts on the moon that were diametrically opposed to one another. In order to colonize Mars, SpaceX plans to use the Starship, a massive rocket and spacecraft system currently in development that Musk hopes will one day be used to colonize the planet. A more straightforward proposal was put forward by Blue Origin, which called for the development of a lunar lander similar to those used on NASA's Apollo missions in the mid-20th century, which are still considered the only missions that have successfully placed humans on the moon.
Despite the fact that NASA initially provided funding for Blue Origin's development, the current saga began when Congress allocated NASA approximately two billion dollars less than the $3.4 billion it requested for High-Speed Rail (HLS). In April, the space agency announced that it would use only one contractor for HLS, SpaceX, and that the agency would not use any other contractors.
SpaceX's bid, which came in at $3 billion, was by far the lowest. Blue Origin's bid for the project was worth $6 billion.
NASA has stated on numerous occasions that cost considerations played a significant role in the decision to award the HLS program to SpaceX as the sole awardee.
After being denied by the Federal Communications Commission, Blue Origin filed an appeal with the Government Accountability Office in July.
In spite of Bezos' attempt to intervene personally by sending an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in which he pledged to waive $2 billion in development costs in exchange for Blue Origin's reinstatement in the competition, this resulted in the failure of Blue Origin.
Bezos' letter states that "if NASA does not have competition, it will find itself with few options early in the contract as it attempts to negotiate missed deadlines, design changes, and cost overruns." The agency's near- and long-term lunar ambitions will be delayed, resulting in higher long-term costs and a failure to serve the national interest if it does not face competition.
Nelson, on the other hand, appears to have remained unconvinced, and Blue Origin escalated the standoff even further by filing a lawsuit in federal claims court about two months ago, according to the company.
In the meantime, public relations campaigns were launched. SpaceX's plans, which include multiple launches to deliver Starship vehicles and tankers of fuel into orbit, are being portrayed as implausible and deviating too far from proven technology, according to an infographic shared on social media by Blue Origin. The headline of the infographic read, "Extremely complex and high risk."
Musk responded on Twitter, writing that if "lobbying and lawyers could get you into orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto [right now]." "If lobbying and lawyers could get you into orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto [right now]."
In response to a request for comment, SpaceX did not respond, but Musk did tweet a meme featuring Sylvester Stallone's "Judge Dredd" character from the 1995 action film Judge Dredd, with the message "you have been judged."
Recently, the US Senate expressed a desire for NASA to expand the HLS program by hiring two new contractors to supplement the existing workforce.
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subject when reached by phone. According to a statement released by NASA on Thursday, the agency will continue to work exclusively with SpaceX for the foreseeable future, though Blue Origin may be eligible to compete for future contracts to build an astronaut-ready lunar landing vehicle.
Companies will have opportunities to partner with NASA in order to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, according to a statement from NASA. "These opportunities will include a call in 2022 for recurring crewed lunar landing services," NASA said.
