On Friday, NASA told Elon Musk, the CEO of SapceX to stop work on a lunar spacecraft as the two companies who lost out to him – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics have challenged the bid at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This means that work on the spacecraft has to stop until the GAO rules on the case, by August 4. The protest was filed by Blue Origin on Monday. Dynetics has also challenged NASA’s contract to SpaceX, according to the GAO
Musk trolled his fellow billionaire, who beats him in the billions he owes, but whose company Blue Origins is a novice in space achievements, when compared with SpaceX. Musk tweeted saying, “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol while replying to a tweet.
On Monday, the New York Times and Reuters had reported Bezos’ 50 page protest. Bob Smith, the CEO of Blue Origins called NASA’s decision flawed and said that the space agency made “atypical errors” and that these errors had to be addressed and remedied.
The proposed historic moon landing by America became a clash among billionaires as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics competed for the contract.
The initial 10 months contracts reached at a total of $967 million. It was split up as follows:
- Blue Origin – $579 million
- Dynetics – $253 million
- SpaceX – $153 million
However, the Artemis Mission was awarded to SpaceX and this did not go down well with the other two rivals who have officially filed with the GAO.
Named after Artemis, the sister of Apollo, the space agency had wished to get back to the moon with this new mission. It proposes to make new discoveries on and around the lunar surface but this new development will delay the lunar landing further. NASA has also decided to send an astronaut of color and a woman astronaut to the moon, in this mission.
