NASA had sought proposals for a spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the lunar surface under its Artemis program to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. SpaceX, headed by Tesla Inc Chief Executive Musk, joined the proceedings as an intervener shortly after the lawsuit was filed. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in July sided with the NASA over its decision to pick a single lunar lander provider, rejecting Blue Origin's protest. 1, part of an agreement among the parties to expedite the litigation schedule, which culminated in Thursday's ruling. NASA halted work on the lunar lander contract through Nov. CLPS allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services for payloads that advance capabilities for science. 18, 2019, as taking part in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services or CLPS initiative. SpaceX was one of five companies announced on Nov. A federal judge today rejected Blue Origin’s challenge to a 2.9 billion contract that NASA awarded to SpaceX for building the lunar lander destined to carry astronauts to the moon. NASA has awarded a combined 146 million in contracts to five companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics, to develop lander concepts as part of the agency’s Artemis program. NASA said on Thursday "it will resume work with SpaceX" on the lunar lander contract "as soon as possible." The space agency added it "continues working with multiple American companies to bolster competition and commercial readiness for crewed transportation to the lunar surface." Artist's concept of a SpaceX commercial lunar lander on the Moon. "Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract," Bezos wrote on Twitter. According to its complaint, NASA’s evaluation of proposals under the HLS program was “unlawful and improper.”įederal judge Richard Hertling’s dismissal of the suit is currently sealed, so the exact reasoning behind the decision isn’t yet clear, but he ordered the parties to prepare proposed redactions near the end of the month so the document could be released to the public.Blue Origin, created by Inc founder Bezos, expressed disappointment. That approach didn’t work either, so in August, Blue filed its lawsuit. We used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to imagine what the Vikram lander looks like on the Moon as it sleeps during the long, cold lunar night. The simple fact, according to GAO, was that NASA ended up with less funds than anticipated for the contract hence, it was only able to give out a single award.Īround the same time, Bezos penned an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, offering to solve the budget issue by knocking $2 billion off the cost to develop a lander and self-funding a pathfinder mission in exchange for a contract. While it’s true that NASA did veer from historical precedent in only selecting one provider for the contract, GAO ultimately dismissed the companies’ complaint. Blue, along with defense contractor Dynetics, filed a complaint with the government watchdog the Government Accountability Office over the decision, on the grounds that awarding a single company was anti-competitive and that the selection process was biased. When NASA announced that it had chosen SpaceX - and only SpaceX - to develop the lander at a cost of $2.9 billion, Blue Origin began its protest. The dismissal of the complaint brings to a close a months-long saga over the Human Landing System program, a NASA initiative to facilitate the design of a lunar landing system that could return humans to the moon in 2024. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin against NASA over the agency’s decision to award a lunar lander contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |