Work on the project of landing a man on the moon suspended until November 1
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has temporarily suspended cooperation with Elon Musk’s SpaceX on a contract to develop a system for landing a man on the lunar surface in 2024 worth $ 2.9 billion under the Artemis program. This decision was taken by the American space agency after another lawsuit filed by the richest man on the planet, Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin.
Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Bezos, filed a lawsuit in federal court in the United States last week, in which it pointed out the shortcomings of the deal, Reuters reported. The company now aims to “correct mistakes in the contract, ensure fair treatment, create competition and ensure America’s safe return to the moon.”
To challenge the decision of the space agency to entrust the work on the lunar module as part of the SpaceX Artemis program The Blue Origin mask is trying for the second time. Earlier, Bezos even offered to cover NASA’s expenses in the amount of up to $ 2 billion in exchange for this contract.
We will remind, NASA announced the draft program “Artemis”, consisting of three stages, back in the spring of 2019. The first of them involves the unmanned flight of the Orion spacecraft installed on the Space Launch System rocket around the Moon and its return to Earth. The second stage is a flight around a natural satellite of the Earth with a crew on board. The third phase of the mission provides for the implementation of the landing of astronauts on the moon in 2024, and then sending them to Mars roughly in the mid-2030s.
Now, however, the “dispute between business entities” has led to the fact that work on the ambitious “lunar contract” has been suspended until November 1. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the first hearing on Blue Origin’s lawsuit is set for October 14.
“In exchange for this temporary shutdown, all parties have agreed to an expedited trial schedule that will end on November 1,” a spokesman for the space agency said. “NASA officials continue to work with the Justice Department to investigate the details of the case and look forward to a timely resolution of the matter.”
SpaceX intervened in the lawsuit this week. The company intends to make sure that the court “has a complete and accurate understanding of all the facts and circumstances related to this case.” Indeed, if Blue Origin’s claim is satisfied, Elon Musk’s firm will “suffer enormous damage.”
Previously, it was assumed that SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics will jointly participate in the NASA project to develop lunar lander. However, according to the head of the manned flight program Katie Luders, the aerospace agency refused such an option due to a lack of funding. The fact is that of the 3.3 billion dollars requested for this purpose, the US Congress allocated only 850 million dollars.
Thus, SpaceX was declared the winner of the competition. NASA explained its decision not only by limited funds, but also by the fact that Elon Musk’s proposal turned out to be the most profitable. According to CNBC, Blue Origin valued its services at $ 5.9 billion, Dynetics at $ 8.5 billion, while SpaceX’s contract was worth $ 2.89 billion.
Following the loss, Blue Origin accused NASA of “illegal and inappropriate evaluation” of the competition and filed a complaint against the agency’s decision with the United States Audit Office. However, she sided with the space agency in July.
According to her decision, NASA did not violate any rules when choosing a winner, so the space agency had the right to choose only one contractor. In addition, the report of the US Audit Office emphasized that the project submitted by SpaceX for the system of landing a man on the moon “met the stated requirements.” That is why the company received the contract legally.
Last year, the US Department of Defense was sued by another company of the billionaire Bezos, the famous American Internet retailer Amazon. The Pentagon gave Microsoft a 10 billion contract for the supply of software for data storage in the cloud. But since its implementation was suspended due to the lawsuit, the department eventually canceled its proposal and announced a new tender.
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