Washington:
Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA on Monday providing a $2 billion discount to let his corporation to create a Moon lander.
The human landing program (HLS) contract, worth $2.9 billion, was awarded to rival SpaceX in April, but Blue Origin and a third corporation Dynetics filed protests that are at present awaiting adjudication by the US Government Accountability Office.
The United States is looking for to return to the Moon by 2024 below the Artemis plan, working with the lessons discovered to prepare for a crewed Mars mission in the 2030s.
In his letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos mentioned the provide would “bridge the funding shortfall” that led to the space agency choosing just one contractor, rather of two which would then compete with every single other.
He added “this offer is not a deferral, but is an outright permanent waiver.”
Since losing the award, Blue Origin has been frantically lobbying to have the choice reversed, major the Senate to pass a bill agreeing to add $10 billion to the human lander program.
But the legislation is nevertheless getting debated in the House, and has been branded a “Bezos Bailout” by critics.
Bezos wrote that an benefit of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander was its use of liquid hydrogen for fuel, which can be mined from lunar ice in line with NASA’s plans to use the Moon to refuel rockets for operations deeper into the solar program.
He added that the corporation would test its lander in orbit about the Earth at its personal expense.
“We stand ready to help NASA moderate its technical risks and solve its budgetary constraints and put the Artemis Program back on a more competitive, credible, and sustainable path,” Bezos concluded.
It is unclear regardless of whether Bezos’ last-minute intervention will sway the outcome of the award.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)