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Watchdog denies Blue Origin's challenge to NASA's lunar lander program
Blue Origin's protest against NASA's decision to pick just one company to build the country's first human lunar lander in decades was denied by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the watchdog agency said Friday, also denying a similar protest from Dynetics. The decision keeps Blue Origin's rival, Elon Musk's SpaceX, the sole winner of NASA's lucrative Moon lander program and hands a loss to Jeff Bezos, whose space company waged a months-long fight to win the same funding.
In a formal protest filed in April, Bezos' Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics had accused NASA of running afoul of contracting law when the agency shelved their proposals and gave Musk's SpaceX a lone $3 billion contract to land a crew of humans on the Moon by 2024. NASA had said it could award up to two companies for the contract, but never committed to that number, and went with SpaceX's Starship proposal. The GAO found that NASA "reserved the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award at all."
Musk responded to the news by tweeting "GAO" with a flexing bicep emoji.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 31 2021, @01:51AM (1 child)
But SpaceX is a genuine real deal. Can't compare it to Bezos and what's his name's leisure travel into lower atmosphere for millionaire's fun times.
Fuck you, Bezos. You are just a sock-peddling merchant.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 31 2021, @03:02PM
I had to look up "sock-peddling merchant." I say "cargo cult leader who drinks his own Kool-aid."
By "what's his name" I assume you mean Sir Richard Branson. He knows his hot rod sports-plane is a very expensive hobby rocket and he's perfectly fine with that because its a rocket plane and that's awesome. He doesn't need to pretend it is anything else to enjoy it, and that alone puts him head-and-shoulders above Bezos. That Branson has his own genuine real deal rocket (Virgin Orbit) that has actually launched satellites into orbit doesn't enter into it.