Blue Origin’s loss to SpaceX on the lunar lander contract may get Congress to do something it hadn’t done before: Give NASA extra money, Washington Post
“Along with Dynetics, the defense contractor that also lost out on the contract, Blue Origin protested NASA’s decision, saying the space agency “executed a flawed acquisition.” It also took to Capitol Hill, lobbying its allies in Congress to force NASA to come up with the additional money and make a second award. On Wednesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) of Washington state, where Blue Origin is headquartered, came through, introducing legislation that calls for NASA to do just that. The legislation, which passed as an amendment to another bill, would authorize but not appropriate an additional $10 billion to the Artemis program through fiscal 2026. It also calls for NASA to pick a second winner for the contract.”
Senate committee approves 2021 NASA Authorization, requires second HLS system, Space Policy Online
“This new NASA authorization bill would require NASA to fund HLS design, development, testing and evaluation “for not fewer than 2 entities” and gives the agency just 30 days after the bill is enacted into law to do it. How NASA could implement that in such a short time is a mystery. It went through a source selection process and chose a winner with documentation as to why. That decision is under protest at GAO, which must make a ruling by August 4. GAO can uphold the award or require NASA to change its decision. Either way, how an additional layer of congressionally-directed procurement action would affect that process is murky and could hang like a Damoclean sword over HLS, delaying its development and the timeline for putting astronauts back on the Moon. HLS is necessary for ferrying crews between lunar orbit and the surface.”
Sounds like a lot of litigation in the future, over the contract, etc. I hope it leads to NASA just getting more money so they can appease the National Team as well, but who knows – Congress just seems averse to giving them budget increases.
Budget increases for legacy space have proven to be waste of taxpayer money. It is past time to give Space X a real chance.
I wonder if Congress could specify a maximum contract amount for a second lander, and force BO&Co. to do the work for a more reasonable price.
Or we could just give Space X a chance after legacy space has repeatedly failed us for decades.
Raise your hand if you saw this coming…
Ya, me too.
Looks like holding the second spot hostage worked. Good job NASA!
Now they just have to sneak it past the folks in Congress who don’t care about U.S. leadership in space.
What do you mean it worked? It authorizes $10bn to NASA ostensibly for the HLS contract… but then it also mandates the EUS for Artemis III, without funding that. So this is really a backdoor funding of EUS with no bone being thrown to HLS at all.
I thought EUS was already funded.
I don’t think Bezos cares too much at this point. His only goal is if he can’t have it then no one will.
What he needs to do is business. It’s what he’s good at and he hasn’t been doing it with Blue Origin. Boggles my mind.
You seem to forget who is partnered with Blue Origin, the king of pork.
I’ve never been comfortable signing motivation without evidence.
It’s very hard to explain the slow progress of BO. Some, including Eric Berger, point out that executives are from Old Space. This seems apt, qt least to me.
But it hardly explains it. Perhaps he hired the folks h thought best to build rockets: guys with some sort of histo0ry; then he left them alone. Mr. Musk hired young, bright kids, then managed the hell out of them personally. Seems like a better explanation for the differences.
So we can forget about a manned lunar landing in this decade?
No. Just not under a NASA banner if the Congressional critters interfere too much.
Well, given the Senate’s track record at directing NASA to build things they don’t want (SLS), what could possibly go wrong?
I wonder if , in the end, NASA is directed to select a 2nd ‘winner’ for lunar landing,,,but is not funded. That would wreck havoc on the rest of NASA’s budget if HEOMD had to rob SMD et al to pay for 2nd winner.
Guess we will have to wait and see what happens. here. Sheesh.
Yup. That would be my concern, as well. Congress can still make a mess out of this. (robbing defeat from the jaws of victory and all that…)
Pick a second winner and give them a token amount. Leave SpaceXs award alone.
I doubt Musk is worried about this. By the time NASA and Congress get through messing things up, SpaceX will have its own base established on the Moon, using SpaceShips and associated reusable landers, etc., unless, of course, the FAA or Congress tries to block such commercial activity. Just how far does U.S. governmental authority extend once a spacecraft is in LEO?
It’s pretty much like the authority the US government has over US flagged ships in international waters. Plus, the government has the authority (actually, the obligation) to make sure private, US spacecraft adhere to the terms of the Outer Space Treaty. But the FAA’s regulatory powers are fairly limited. So anything the government wants to prevent a private lunar landing would take a new law passed by Congress and signed by the President. I think that would produce high-visibility, negative press. So I doubt it would happen.
This wouldn’t be happening if Jeff and Mackenzie were still together.
Blue Origin’s problem is bigger than just not getting a NASA contract. Their progress is slow and so far they have not gotten anything into space, so they need to come from behind and speed things drastically to have a chance to compete. I see them as a long shot. Hopefully they will not interfere with Space X’s far more successful efforts.