The space race among the world’s two richest guys went into hyperdrive on Tuesday right after Tesla chief Elon Musk took a swipe at Jeff Bezos’ try to challenge a key NASA contract.
The two billionaires, who have been attempting to launch extended-variety orbital rockets, have been competing for a coveted contract from the government to create a spaceship to provide astronauts to the moon as early as 2024.
Musk won. Bezos was not pleased.
Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), accusing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of moving the goalposts for contract bidders at the last minute.
Musk, who also leads SpaceX, fired back with a tweet that stated: “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol.”
He did not elaborate on the tweet, but pasted a screenshot of a 2019 report about Bezos unveiling Blue Origin’s moon lander on the identical Twitter thread.
Blue Origin has fallen far behind SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) on orbital transportation, losing out on billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. national safety launch contracts that start in 2022. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp.
These rocket startups primarily aim to send satellites for clientele into orbit at an reasonably priced price tag and reuse components of rockets to retain fees in verify.
Earlier this month, NASA awarded SpaceX the lunar contract more than Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics. The sought-right after project aims to place humans back on the moon for the very first time considering that 1972.
“NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute,” Blue Origin stated in an emailed statement.
“Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the moon. Because of that, we’ve filed a protest with the GAO.”
The GAO also confirmed that Dynetics had challenged the NASA contract award to SpaceX. Dynetics did not promptly respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Musk’s SpaceX bid alone whilst Amazon.com founder Bezos’ Blue Origin partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper.
The filing of the 50-web page protest by Blue Origin was reported earlier by the New York Times.
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