Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches protest against Elon Musk's SpaceX over NASA contract

Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin has filed a protest against NASA’s decision to award Elon Musk’s SpaceX a $2.9 billion award to develop a human-lander system to mark the return of astronauts to the moon. As per the Bloomberg report, Blue Origin has called on the United States Government Accountability Office to stay NASA’s deal with Musk’s aerospace company and rectify the “errors” in the entire procurement process that prohibited Bezos’ aerospace company’s proposal to be selected by NASA. Blue Origin reportedly submitted its proposal that included Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Draper, an engineering and avionics firm.

As per reports, Blue Origin said in a statement on April 26 accompanying the challenge to NASA’s decision that the US space agency has “executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute. Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays but also endangers America’s return to the moon."

However, Blue Origin’s protest against NASA selecting SpaceX has marked a new front in a fight over US government contracts as Bezos’ company intensified its case against Space Exploration Technologies Corp. that is already a close partner of NASA. As per the report, Blue Origin said in its protest that its team bid $5.99 billion compared with $2.91 billion for SpaceX, based on NASA’s evaluation of the proposals. The final award granted by the US government for landing demonstration without crew and another one with the astronauts is totalled $2.89 billion.

Elon Musk responds to Blue Origin’s protest

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk issued the first response following the report of Blue Origin launching a protest against his company by making a thinly veiled joke about the male anatomy. While replying to the report stating that Bezos’ company has protested against NASA awarding SpaceX, Musk wrote on Twitter, “Can't get it up (to orbit) lol” with the joke alluding to the fact that Blue Origin has not yet achieved single successful orbital spaceflight with its own rockets. 

Image credits: AP