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Blue Origin sues NASA over lunar lander contract with SpaceX – IT Pro – News

Blue Origin, the space company of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is suing NASA over its decision to award a $2.9 billion moon landing contract to SpaceX.

The company wrote that Blue Origin “challenges NASA’s illegal and inappropriate assessment of the proposal.” The charges were filed on Monday and remained sealed behind a protective order, also write news agency Reuters An American news outlet CNBC. NASA must send a response by October 12.

Space company Jeff Bezos’ fees escalated from an ongoing conflict between the company and NASA, with Blue Origin protesting a contract NASA awarded SpaceX to build a lunar lander. Blue Origin argues that NASA has heard of multiple contracts, and that NASA “acted incorrectly” by awarding only one contract to SpaceX. NASA only offered one contract for the upcoming HLS program because the budget for it was less than expected.

a few weeks ago The US Government Accountability Office rejected a previous protest by Blue Origin over the contract for the SpaceX lunar lander. This regulator argued that NASA’s decision to hand over a single contract was not illegal. Because of this protest, SpaceX was unable to start the lunar probe project for three months while the Accountability Office reviewed the matter. The new lawsuit may cause further delays.

Following the Government Accountability Office’s decision, a spokesperson for Blue Origin . said to TechCrunch That the company still believed there were “fundamental problems” with NASA’s appointment of SpaceX. Blue Origin also stated that the Government Accountability Office cannot address these issues because the regulator does not have the appropriate powers to rule on them.

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SpaceX and NASA have yet to comment on the new Blue Origin lawsuit. Jeff Bezos previously offered that he would reimburse NASA $2 billion in costs if the space agency offered a moon landing contract to Blue Origin, he wrote. The Wall Street Journal late last month.

Blue Origin launched the first manned spaceflight last month