JUDGE RELEASES AGAINST CONTRACT LUNAR LANDER FULL
In a tweet, Bezos said: "Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract. We look forward to hearing from NASA on next steps in the HLS procurement process. We are also under contract with NASA to develop in-situ resource utilization technology, lunar space robotics, and lunar landing sensor collaboration including testing on New Shepard. We are fully engaged with NASA to mature sustainable lander designs, conduct a wide variety of technology risk reductions, and provide Commercial Lunar Payload Services. Blue Origin remains deeply committed to the success of the Artemis program, and we have a broad base of activity on multiple contracts with NASA to achieve the United States’ goal to return to the Moon to stay. Returning astronauts safely to the Moon through NASA’s public-private partnership model requires an unprejudiced procurement process alongside sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition. Our lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed. It's not clear if Blue Origin will challenge the outcome (we've asked about this), but we wouldn't be shocked if there was an appeal.
The company was also keen to tout its continued involvement with the Artemis program, including development of lunar resource systems, robotics and sensors. and showed the need for an "unprejudiced" process that spurred competition and included backup systems. The case allegedly "highlighted the important safety issues" in HLS procurement.
In a statement, Blue Origin portrayed the ruling as a partial victory. Now the agency and Elon Musk-founded company plan to start up work again 'as soon as possible,' according to a NASA statement. Between the lines: NASA and SpaceX had to stall work on the human lander while the Blue Origin lawsuit was being worked out. Blue Origin disagreed with the assessment and felt it made a good offer, but that still suggests NASA preferred SpaceX for its lower pricing instead of any unfair criteria. Blue Origin asked for 5.9 billion to develop its lunar lander.
The agency believed Blue Origin was gambling with its initial $5.9 billion proposal on flawed assumptions that NASA would both haggle down the price and receive the funding needed to cover a more expensive bid. Read the full copy of Blue Origin’s redacted lawsuit below.The outcome isn't surprising given NASA's own skepticism. SpaceX was competing with Blue Origin and Dynetics for what was expected to be two contracts, before NASA awarded only a single contract due to a lower-than-expected allocation for the program from Congress. The congressional watchdog’s ruling backed the space agency’s surprise announcement in April that NASA awarded SpaceX with a lunar lander contract worth about $2.9 billion. Historically a staunch advocate for prioritizing safety, NASA inexplicably disregarded key flight safety requirements for only SpaceX, in order to select and make award to a SpaceX proposal that assessed as tremendously high risk and immensely complex, even before the waiver of safety requirements, Blue Origin said in the lawsuit filed in August. Government Accountability Office denied the company’s protest, upholding NASA’s decision. “Historically a staunch advocate for prioritizing safety, NASA inexplicably disregarded key flight safety requirements for only SpaceX, in order to select and make award to a SpaceX proposal that assessed as tremendously high risk and immensely complex, even before the waiver of safety requirements,” Blue Origin said in the lawsuit filed in August.īlue Origin’s complaint came after the U.S. Federal Court of Claims on Wednesday released a redacted version of the lawsuit by Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin against NASA over the lucrative lunar lander contract awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year.
0 kommentar(er)
