Bezos’ Blue Origin takes NASA to federal court over award of lunar lander contract to SpaceX

[Elderberry]

CNBC by Michael Sheetz 8/16/2021

Bezos’ Blue Origin takes NASA to federal court over award of lunar lander contract to SpaceX

Key Points

•   Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin filed a sealed complaint in federal court against NASA on Monday.

•   “This bid protest challenges NASA’s unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals,” Blue Origin wrote in its court filing.

•   Blue Origin’s filing in court comes a couple of weeks after the U.S. Government Accountability Office denied the company’s protest, upholding NASA’s decision.

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin filed a complaint in federal court against NASA, continuing its protest that the agency wrongly awarded a lucrative contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year.

“This bid protest challenges NASA’s unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals,” Blue Origin’s lawyers wrote in its court filing.

The protest, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Monday, is sealed and marks the next step in the company’s attempt to get NASA’s decision overturned. A Blue Origin spokesperson confirmed the lawsuit filing, adding in a statement to CNBC that it is looking “to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA’s Human Landing System.”

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html

[Elderberry]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-origin-federal-claims-court-nasa-challenge-163927526.html

What this means for the Human Landing System program and Project Artemis more broadly is likely another delay. Following Blue Origin's GAO protest, NASA ordered SpaceX to stop work on the lunar lander contract while the watchdog investigated the matter. While this latest complaint is sealed, a source told The Verge Blue Origin asked a judge to order a temporary pause on SpaceX's contract while the case is resolved in court. NASA and SpaceX lost about three months waiting for the GAO to investigate Blue Origin's protest. If a judge approves the company's request, this latest pause could be even longer. Ultimately, any further delays will make NASA's goal of returning to the Moon by 2024 difficult.

[RetBobbyMI]

Where is his orbital class rockets? Let me know when he has one before he's taken seriously.

[Elderberry]

SpaceX’s Starship Moon lander under fire yet again as Blue Origin sues NASA

TESLARATI by Eric Ralph 8/16/2021

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-moon-lander-blue-origin-lawsuit/

Less than three weeks after the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) categorically denied protests from Blue Origin and Dynetics over NASA’s decision to award SpaceX a Moon lander development contract, the former company has sued the space agency.

First reported by The Verge, Blue Origin filed its lawsuit against NASA with the US Court of Federal Claims on Monday, August 16th and continues to spout the same kind of rhetoric that GAO wholeheartedly refuted on July 30th. Namely, the office explicitly upheld the procurement process and reasoning behind NASA’s decision to award SpaceX – and SpaceX alone – a contract to develop a crewed Moon lander.

Thus far, the central argument put forth by Blue Origin and Dynetics is that NASA effectively invalidated the entire Human Landing System (HLS) “Option A” procurement when it didn’t award two HLS development contracts. Option A refers to a limited portion of the HLS program focused on funding the development of crewed Moon landers and the completion of two crucial flight tests – one uncrewed and one with NASA astronauts aboard.

    Blue Origin alerted the court last week of its impending lawsuit, and requested that the judge order a pause to SpaceX’s contract while the case is adjudicated, according to a person familiar with the notice. https://t.co/Vo7ZCyptEd

This will further inflame internal tensions at Blue Origin, which are rising. Many employees are super disappointed in this tactic. It will also make other commercial space companies wary of partnering, and make it super difficult to win any federal contracts in the future.