Blue Origin, an aerospace company affiliated with billionaire Jeff Bezos, has challenged NASA’s decision to award SpaceX a $ 2.9 billion lunar module design deal.

This was after the General Inspection Committee of the United States Congress published a 175-page report on the matter.

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Notably, NASA announced on April 16 that the American company “SpaceX” had won an agreement to design a spacecraft designed to bring American astronauts to the surface of the moon. In addition to “SpaceX”, Blue Origin and Dynetics participated in the tender.

In a statement published by Blue Origin, NASA made the wrong decision after changing the rules of the game at the last minute. He said that “NASA supported the” extreme danger “and its decision eliminated the possibilities of competition and greatly reduced the mission supply and supply base and not only postponed the mission, but also threatened the process of the return of states. United to the moon. Therefore, we have appealed this decision to the inspection committee of the United States Congress. “

It is worth noting that The Washington Post had previously reported that NASA was expected to designate two companies out of 3 companies that design the lunar module, in the interest of stimulating competition between them, and then choose the company that achieves the goal. . draft. However, he ultimately chose only one company.

Notably, NASA announced in the spring of 2019 its lunar “Artemis” program project, which should culminate in the landing of American astronauts on the moon’s surface by 2024.

Source: TASS

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