Say what you will about Jeff Bezos
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 Trump
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,…
Read More: Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos wages lawfare on NASA and SpaceX