CNN reports…
Blue Origin filed a federal lawsuit Friday to challenge a NASA moon landing contract awarded solely to rival company SpaceX, upping the ante in an already tense standoff over the multibillion-dollar lunar lander program.
The protective order was first publicly posted Monday.
Details of the lawsuit are not publicly available because the documents are under seal, but Blue Origin claims it is an “attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA’s Human Landing System,” the company said in a statement. Human Landing System, or HLS, is the formal name of the program that’s at the heart of this legal battle, and it seeks to use private-sector contracting to develop, build and test the vehicle that will put astronauts on the moon for the first time in a half-century.
After initially pledging to offer multiple contracts to spur the development of at least two lunar landers that could compete against each other, NASA announced in April that it was giving only a single award to SpaceX for $2.9 billion, citing costs as a primary reason for the decision. Congress did not award NASA all the money it had requested for the HLS program.
Blue Origin previously attempted to fight the contracting decision with the US Government Accountability Office, but the GAO sided with NASA and denied the request.
“We firmly believe that the issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition, and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America,” Blue Origin said in a statement.
