Bezos' lawsuit delays NASA's Moon mission, leaving US vulnerable to be succeeded by China

The much-awaited NASA mission to the Moon has been pushed back until 2025 due to delays caused by Jeff Bezos’ private space firm Blue Origin’s lawsuit. According to the Washington Times, Bezos couldn’t win the NASA contract on merit because he charged millions of dollars more than his competitors. Therefore, the US Court of Federal Claims recently ruled against Bezos’ Blue Origin lawsuit over the lucrative astronaut lunar lander contract awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year.

Now, NASA administrator Bill Nelson at a press conference revealed that the US space agency will have to delay the landing by a year because of the lost development time it incurred following the lawsuit filed by Bezos. The Artemis mission has also been further pushed by factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and is very unlikely to take place earlier than 2025. 

“We’ve lost nearly seven months in litigation and that likely has pushed the first human landing likely to no earlier than 2025,” Nelson said during a televised press conference.

US-China space race

During the same press briefing, Nelson anticipated that the Chinese space program is increasingly capable of setting foot on the Moon surface much earlier than expected. It is to mention that experts believe that the delay due to Bezos’ lawsuit puts the US at the backfoot. They also believe that China’s lunar program is extremely capable of reaching the moon in the coming three to four years. 

According to the Washington Times, China is planning to launch a fleet of solar panels into space as an energy source and to return it to earth by 2035. The energy generating system is believed to have equal power as a nuclear plant by 2050. Moreover, China is also reportedly planning to establish and set up an enormous space station, mine asteroids, gas stations, etc., to have control over the US space agency.

While speaking at the news briefing, Nelson emphasised the various factors that temporarily grounded the Moon mission and raised concerns about China’s robust movements to gain new achievements in space. He said that “it is highly possible that China could land on the Moon before a return by US astronauts.” Commenting on China’s “aggressive” space program, he also stated: “This has happened in the last few years that we’ve seen them achieve quite a number of things."  

Further, Nelson referred to China’s claims of landing on the south pole of the Moon and asserted that the US government wished to be the first to send astronauts back to the Moon after over half a century. “We are going to be as aggressive as we can be in a safe and technically feasible way to beat our competitors with boots on the Moon,” CNN quoted Nelson as saying at the televised presser.  

(Image: PTI/AP)