Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos wages lawfare on NASA and SpaceX

Say what you will about Jeff BezosJeffrey (Jeff) Preston BezosCan SpaceX’s Elon Musk help NASA get back to the moon by 2024 after all? Amazon planning large physical retail stores: report Bezos’ Blue Origin sues NASA over award of lunar lander contract to Musk’s SpaceX MORE, but he is not a quitter when it comes to getting a contract that he believes is his due. When NASA awarded a sole contract to Blue Origin’s main rival SpaceX for the Human Landing System (HLS) that will take Americans back to the moon, Bezos, as well as another contractor, Dynetics, complained to the General Accounting Office (GAO). On July 30, the GAO denied the protests. Congress provided only enough money for one HLS, at least for the first round. NASA found that SpaceX offered a superior design. The fact that Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskTesla files to become electric utility in Texas Hillicon Valley: Tech groups pledge action on cybersecurity Cryptocurrency makes the climate crisis worse MORE offered the lowest bid did not hurt either.

A less determined man would have accepted the GAO’s judgment and would have ordered his engineers to refine the Blue Origin HLS design for the next round. All SpaceX won was one uncrewed test flight to the lunar surface and the Artemis III mission, the first human expedition to the moon since 1972. The next round will determine which contractors will develop their versions of the HLS going forward.

Instead, Bezos filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to overturn the award to SpaceX. By so doing, the man who revolutionized the retail industry with Amazon.com may have doomed Blue Origin from ever getting a major government contract, according to space reporter Eric Berger, writing for Ars Technica. Bezos’ efforts to get the lunar lander contract, which included an offer to knock $2 billion off his initial bid and much-mocked infographics denigrating the SpaceX lunar Starship, has alienated not only NASA but many Blue Origin employees. According to Tech Times, a lead engineer for Blue Origin’s lunar lander project has jumped ship to work for SpaceX.

The lawsuit will definitely delay America’s return to the moon, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The delay is not likely to endear Bezos to the space agency or supporters of Project Artemis. 

Why Bezos is committing what may turn out to be a kamikaze move is unclear. Eric Berger reports that Bezos believes that he is entitled to an HLS contract because he thinks that his lobbying was instrumental in getting then-President TrumpDonald TrumpPollsters confront tough survey landscape after 2020 flubs The Memo: Will DeSantis’s star fall as Florida COVID numbers rise? Legal experts welcome sanctions of pro-Trump lawyers, say more needed MORE to greenlight the Project Artemis return to the moon program.

There are two problems with that belief. First, Trump regards Bezos with a great deal of contempt. According to Fox Business, the feud between Trump and Bezos goes back to 2015,…