WASHINGTON, DC
(Reuters) — Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued the US government over NASA's
decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's
SpaceX.
اضافة اعلان
Blue Origin's lawsuit
filed in the US Court of Federal Claims on Friday "challenges NASA’s
unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals," the company said in a
court filing.
Last month, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) sided with the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration over its decision to pick a single lunar lander provider,
rejecting Blue Origin's protest.
Blue Origin's lawsuit
remains under seal.
NASA must file a response to the challenge by October 12.
Blue Origin and defense
contractor Dynetics have argued that NASA was required to make multiple awards.
The GAO said it "denied the protest arguments that NASA acted improperly
in making a single award to SpaceX."
Blue Origin, the rocket
company founded by Amazon.com Inc. billionaire Bezos, said earlier it remained
convinced that there were "fundamental issues" with NASA's decision,
and that GAO was not able to address them "due to their limited
jurisdiction."
Blue Origin, headed by
Tesla Inc.'s Musk, said it will continue to advocate for two immediate
providers as it believes that to be the right solution.
NASA, which did not
immediately comment on the Blue Origin lawsuit, said in July that "GAO's
decision will allow NASA and SpaceX to establish a timeline for the first
crewed landing on the Moon in more than 50 years."
SpaceX did not
immediately comment on Monday.
NASA had sought proposals
for a spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the lunar surface under its
Artemis program to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.
In April, NASA awarded
SpaceX a contract to build such a spacecraft as early as 2024.
Blue Origin had
contended NASA gave SpaceX an unfair advantage by letting it revise its
pricing.
Bezos has offered to
cover up to $2 billion in NASA costs if the US space agency awarded Blue Origin
a lunar landing contract.
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