NASA Halts SpaceX Work On $2.9 Bn Lunar Lander After Lawsuit By Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin had sued the US government last week over NASA's decision to award the $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX.

In this file photo taken on February 02, 2021 the recovered first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, California. | AFP

New Delhi: Days after billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued the US government over NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX, the space agency Thursday agreed to temporarily halt work on the human landing system, Reuters reported.

Blue Origin had filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims last week, calling it "an attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA's Human Landing System". The court will hear the case on October 14.

NASA said in a statement that it paused work with SpaceX on the lander until November 1. 

"In exchange for this temporary stay of work, all parties agreed to an expedited litigation schedule that concludes on Nov. 1," the space agency said. "NASA officials are continuing to work with the Department of Justice to review the details of the case and look forward to a timely resolution of this matter."

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) had last month rejected Blue Origin's protest, supporting NASA’s decision to pick a single lunar lander provider.

SpaceX has not come out with any statement on the NASA decision.

Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc, has said it is convinced there were "fundamental issues" with NASA's decision. It also said the GAO was not able to address them "due to their limited jurisdiction", the Reuters report said.

SpaceX was awarded a contract by NASA to build a spacecraft by 2024, for the Artemis Mission, which aims to land humans on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. 

"NASA is committed to Artemis and to maintaining the nation's global leadership in space exploration. With our partners, we will go to the moon and stay to enable science investigations, develop new technology, and create high paying jobs for the greater good and in preparation to send astronauts to Mars," the space agency said on Thursday.