Florida : Blue Origin is escalating its fight over NASA’s decision to award SpaceX a multibillion-dollar lunar contract by filing a federal lawsuit challenging the decision, reports News 6 partner Florida Today.
The suit, filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims late last week, has triggered a series of reviews by NASA officials and marks the latest chapter in a dramatic scuffle between the two companies to secure high-profile contracts related to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to put American astronauts back on the moon by the mid-2020s.
“Blue Origin filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in an attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA’s Human Landing System,” the company confirmed in a statement. The company is owned and personally funded by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s richest person. SpaceX was founded by fellow billionaire Elon Musk.
Earlier this year, SpaceX’s Starship platform was selected as the sole winner of the Human Lander System, or HLS, contract initially valued at $3 billion. It strictly focuses on the vehicle that will take NASA astronauts from lunar orbit down to the surface; the agency’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule will take them to lunar orbit first.
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