Court: Blue Origin bid for NASA’s lunar lander contract a failure on all counts
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims today released its detailed report on why it dismissed Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s contract award to SpaceX’s Starship for its manned lunar lander, essentially saying that the lawsuit was a joke. From the report itself [pdf]:
The Court finds that Blue Origin does not have standing because it did not have a substantial chance of award but for the alleged evaluation errors. Its proposal was priced well above NASA’s available funding and was itself noncompliant. Blue Origin argues that it would have submitted an alternative proposal, but the Court finds its hypothetical proposal to be speculative and unsupported by the record. The Court also finds that several of Blue Origin’s objections are waived.
Even if Blue Origin had standing and its objections were not waived, the Court finds that it would lose on the merits. Blue Origin has not shown that NASA’s evaluation or its conduct during the procurement was arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law. NASA provided a thorough, reasoned evaluation of the proposals, and NASA’s conduct throughout the procurement process was not contrary to law.
The court’s analysis makes Blue Origin’s effort here look embarrassing. The company submitted a weak, overpriced bid, and when it lost on the merits, it then cried foul and said it would have done something different had it known. Neither the court, the GAO, or NASA considered this approach a good recommendation for Jeff Bezos’ company.
The time for lawsuits is over. If Blue Origin wants to compete in the new commercial space industry, it had better start doing it. Right now it acts like it is entitled to success, instead of working hard to achieve it.
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit. And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims today released its detailed report on why it dismissed Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s contract award to SpaceX’s Starship for its manned lunar lander, essentially saying that the lawsuit was a joke. From the report itself [pdf]:
The Court finds that Blue Origin does not have standing because it did not have a substantial chance of award but for the alleged evaluation errors. Its proposal was priced well above NASA’s available funding and was itself noncompliant. Blue Origin argues that it would have submitted an alternative proposal, but the Court finds its hypothetical proposal to be speculative and unsupported by the record. The Court also finds that several of Blue Origin’s objections are waived.
Even if Blue Origin had standing and its objections were not waived, the Court finds that it would lose on the merits. Blue Origin has not shown that NASA’s evaluation or its conduct during the procurement was arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law. NASA provided a thorough, reasoned evaluation of the proposals, and NASA’s conduct throughout the procurement process was not contrary to law.
The court’s analysis makes Blue Origin’s effort here look embarrassing. The company submitted a weak, overpriced bid, and when it lost on the merits, it then cried foul and said it would have done something different had it known. Neither the court, the GAO, or NASA considered this approach a good recommendation for Jeff Bezos’ company.
The time for lawsuits is over. If Blue Origin wants to compete in the new commercial space industry, it had better start doing it. Right now it acts like it is entitled to success, instead of working hard to achieve it.
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit. And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Lex Luthor foiled again.
Don’t slander Mr. L’s name so!
His Lex-Soar was a thing of beauty….unlike Bozo’s gherkin.
Jeff Bezos gets the last laugh… He has friends in high places.
“The NDAA includes a $10 billion subsidy to Bezos’ Blue Origin space exploration company”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bezos-defense-spending-taxpayer-space-project/
Max: Most interesting. I am doing some digging. This has not passed yet, and will likely face some opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Still, this corrupt deal needs to be highlighted.