Blue Origin files lawsuit against Starship lunar contract award
What a joke: Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin on August 13th filed a lawsuit in federal court, attempting to overthrow the contract award NASA gave SpaceX’s Starship in its manned lunar lander Artemis project
In a court filing on Friday, Blue Origin said it continued to believe that two providers were needed to build the landing system, which will carry astronauts down to the Moon’s surface as early as 2024. It also accused Nasa of “unlawful and improper evaluation” of its proposals during the tender process. “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.
The article then goes on to list the basic facts that make this lawsuit absurd. First, NASA had not been appropriated enough money by Congress to award two contracts, and had it done so, it would have violated the law. Second SpaceX’s bid was the lowest bid, far less than Blue Origin’s expensive price. Third, SpaceX was already test flying early prototypes of its Starship lander, while Blue Origin had built nothing. Fourth, many other technical issues made SpaceX’s bid superior.
Finally, the GAO, as an independent arbitrator, has already ruled against a Blue Origin protest, stating unequivocally that NASA had done nothing wrong in its contract process.
This lawsuit makes Blue Origin appear to be a very unserious company. Rather than putting its energies towards building rockets and spacecraft to demonstrate its capabilities, it focuses its effort on playing legal games in the courts. Such behavior will only make it seem less appealling when next it bids on a NASA or Space Force contract.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
What a joke: Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin on August 13th filed a lawsuit in federal court, attempting to overthrow the contract award NASA gave SpaceX’s Starship in its manned lunar lander Artemis project
In a court filing on Friday, Blue Origin said it continued to believe that two providers were needed to build the landing system, which will carry astronauts down to the Moon’s surface as early as 2024. It also accused Nasa of “unlawful and improper evaluation” of its proposals during the tender process. “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.
The article then goes on to list the basic facts that make this lawsuit absurd. First, NASA had not been appropriated enough money by Congress to award two contracts, and had it done so, it would have violated the law. Second SpaceX’s bid was the lowest bid, far less than Blue Origin’s expensive price. Third, SpaceX was already test flying early prototypes of its Starship lander, while Blue Origin had built nothing. Fourth, many other technical issues made SpaceX’s bid superior.
Finally, the GAO, as an independent arbitrator, has already ruled against a Blue Origin protest, stating unequivocally that NASA had done nothing wrong in its contract process.
This lawsuit makes Blue Origin appear to be a very unserious company. Rather than putting its energies towards building rockets and spacecraft to demonstrate its capabilities, it focuses its effort on playing legal games in the courts. Such behavior will only make it seem less appealling when next it bids on a NASA or Space Force contract.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
If you cannot beat them in the field, beat them in the courtroom, if you cannot beat them in the courtroom, try anyway and hope they settle.
The Righthaven business model, applied to spaceflight.
Clearly, they went into this thinking there would be two vendors. They also knew they couldn’t underbid SpaceX. In that situation, you bid high and make billions even if you never deliver anything. When it was just a one bid award, they had to be shocked, then angry. This is the angry part of the reaction.
The congressional budget proposals were public knowledge. Blue must have assumed they wouldn’t be able to afford even one award. SpaceX saw this coming, bid low, and let NASA know they would be more than willing to backload the contract to get it under budget in year one.
The congressional budget proposals were public knowledge. Blue must have assumed they wouldn’t be able to afford even one award. SpaceX saw this coming, bid low, and let NASA know they would be more than willing to backload the contract to get it under budget in year one.
Meanwhile, ULA is wondering when (or even if) it will get those BE4 engines it contracted Blue Origin for. It is customary to demonstrate an ability to fullfil a contract before asking for another one.
I was one of those people that always admired successful people and up until a few days ago, could not get my head around all the hate for Bezos. Now I get it…..I want to see a man on Mars before I die, and this a-hole is going to stop me from seeing that as now I am doubtful I will see another man on the moon with this delaying tactic. He has nothing so lets slow things down.
JhonB: Don’t misconstrue legitimate criticisms of Bezos as hate. I think there is still hope for him and his company. He just needs to refocus. Noting bad moves such as this lawsuit might help him do it.
“The congressional budget proposals were public knowledge. Blue must have assumed they wouldn’t be able to afford even one award. SpaceX saw this coming, bid low, and let NASA know they would be more than willing to backload the contract to get it under budget in year one.”
We don’t know *what* Blue Origin leadership thought, but it’s not hard to think, reading between the lines of their protest documents, that they thought NASA would revert to type and pick two awardees, but stretch out the development schedules as far as necessary – in this case, at least out to 2030 – and maybe lobby and hope for Congress to shorten it back up somewhat later by increasing the HLS funding in out years.
NASA, however clearly felt they had to stick with the 2024 deadline (or some rough approximation thereof) that was still their official objective, which the Biden White House had never changed or revoked.
Blue Origin is also asking the court to demand that Spacex stop work on the HLS contract until it is decided. Wow.
SpaceX is the only company proposing something beyond an “Apollo Mk2” capability (at a fraction of the other bidders’ price)… with the minuscule payloads of either of Dinetics or Blue Origin, it would take dozens of flights to build a shed! Unless they were sending Biden, Obama, Pelosi and Schumer on a one-way mission, it isn’t worth anything!
1201AlarmSameType I get they can ask for halt of SpaceX development, but – since SpaceX was working on landing Starship on other worlds before the NASA contract- not sure how the suit can stop that work.
I like Dynetics myself. I hate this sue happy world, where folks in legal get rooms with views. The left hates billionaires…and the right doesn’t have much use for Bezos. Time for a bipartisan bill to hit Blue and Bezos with a 99 percent tax…the proceeds dumped as a lump sum on Musk for powersats….unless Bezos drops this suit. No more lawyers!
Gary – It will not stop the Starship project in general, that is true. Slowing down the recent momentum to return to the Moon after 50 years from a company that claims to be pro Space makes me sad.
“1201AlarmSameType I get they can ask for halt of SpaceX development, but – since SpaceX was working on landing Starship on other worlds before the NASA contract- not sure how the suit can stop that work.”
I assume this means – and can only mean – the Lunar Starship variant specific development work.
I don’t know honestly how much engineering resources Elon has working on *that*; it does seem, from what we can see and what Elon said in his interview with Tim Dodd, that almost all the work at *Boca Chica* right now is focused on the task of getting a successful orbital flight and return accomplished.
But I’m sure that won’t keep SpaceX and NASA from fiercely contesting Blue Origin’s motion.