Fri 05 November 2021:
Following a court ruling rejecting a lawsuit by rival Blue Origin, NASA said on Thursday that it wants to continue work on a lunar lander project it had paused with SpaceX.
Judge Richard Hertling from the US Court of Federal Claims rejected Blue Origin’s complaint that challenged NASA for “unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals” for a lunar landing.
“NASA was notified Thursday that the US Court of Federal Claims denied Blue Origin’s bid protest, upholding NASA’s selection of SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a modern human lunar lander. NASA will resume work with SpaceX under the Option A contract as soon as possible,” the US space agency said in a press release.
After the ruling, NASA said it would resume work with SpaceX under their contract as soon as possible.
“There will be forthcoming opportunities for companies to partner with NASA in establishing a long-term human presence at the Moon under the agency’s Artemis program,” it said.
The ruling was a major blow to Bezos who wrote on Twitter: “Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract.”
Musk had a comical reply, using a meme from the 2012 science fiction film, Dredd, that read: “You have been judged.”
The world’s two richest men have been racing to space since NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011 after three decades and the US moved to private contractors for space missions.
When NASA decided to award a single contract for a lunar lander that would take passengers from orbiting spacecraft to the lunar south pole as early as 2024, Blue Origin protested after losing to SpaceX.
NASA had planned to offer many contracts to competing companies but decided to confine the project to a single bidder due to budget issues.
Without mentioning Blue Origin by name, the press release stated that private space companies will have possibilities to work with NASA on developing spacecraft and other equipment for a long-term human presence on the lunar as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
As of Thursday, Musk was on top of Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List with a net worth of $320.5 billion, Bezos ranked second with $201.8 billion.
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