In April , NASA awarded Elon Musk ’s SpaceX a$2.89 billion contractto develop the landing organisation that would be used to bring astronauts safely to the surface of the Moon as part of the Artemis mission . Jeff Bezos ’s Blue Origin , however , was not impressed to suffer out and has now also put forward a marriage offer albeit over twice as expensive .
Originally , NASA was bear to pick two out of the potential three companies ( SpaceX , Blue Origin , and Dynetics ) compete for the contract , but made an alleged last - minute decision to choose for just the SpaceX proposal . The price difference was a matter of controversy for the more expensive Blue Origin whoaccused the quad agencyof throw SpaceX an unjust advantage by allowing it to retool the pricing of its lunar lander proposal play along a change in NASA budget . For this reason , back in April , Bezos ’s company file acomplaintwith the Government Accountability Office ( GAO ) against NASA . The decision from the GAO is bear ahead of time next month .
Bezos has now come near NASA with a new proposal . In anopen letterto NASA Administrator Bill Nelson , he offered"to restore competition to the Human Landing System course of study by closing NASA ’s nigh - condition budgetary deficit " by waive payment for the current and next financial years up to $ 2 billion as well as paying for orbital missions to test the technology . Furthermore , Bezos secure that Blue Origin will accept a firm fixed price and cover any cost overruns .
“ I believe this missionary post is important . I am respect to offer these contributions and am grateful to be in a fiscal stance to be capable to do so . NASA veered from its original double - source acquisition strategy due to perceived close - condition budgetary issue , and this offer remove that obstruction , ” Bezos says in the letter .
The change in tune from Bezos has people distrust the GAO will not side with him and his company over the awarding of contracts . NASA wanted two company to make the Human Landing System but afford Blue Origin ’s $ 5.99 billion toll tag on its lander , it was beyond the space office ’s budget . Despite President Joe Biden ’s 2022 Union budget giving the representation thelargest budget postulation for NASAscience ever , it ’s still just 0.41 percentage of the yr ’s full budget .
Bezos lobby for an growth in NASA ’s budget . While that passed at the Senate , it was stopped in the sleeping room of representatives .
TheArtemis Programaims to take human beings back to the Moon by 2024 and , in the longer term , ground a sustainable settlement on the airfoil as well as one in orbit around our born satellite . With its $ 2.89 billion declaration , SpaceX is expected to perform a demonstration of its spaceship as a lunar lander early that year .
It is very much uncertain if NASA will go for this offer but even if it ’s refused this time around , it does n’t intend Blue Origin wo n’t get a chance to develop a Human Landing System in the future . It ’s expected that after the first landing back on the Moon , NASA will request more financial support and look for commercial partners again , allowing the place way to have two lander providers as it had design .
