The GAO, in the public version of its decision on the Blue Origin and Dynetics bid protests released Aug. There’s serious safety issues around that, and that waiver of material requirements prejudiced us and Dynetics,” Megan Mitchell, vice president of government relations at Blue Origin, said in an interview. “We stand by our position that NASA selected a proposal that was not in compliance with the solicitation. “The Agency’s decision to select SpaceX’s deficient proposal for initial, conditional award, was irrational and in direct violation of the Solicitation’s ground rules stating ‘ Offerors are hereby notified that proposals evaluated as having one or more deficiencies are unawardable,’” it stated in the complaint (emphasis in original.)
NASA, in later negotiations with SpaceX, did require an FRR before each type of Starship launch, but that also failed to meet the requirements of the solicitation, according to Blue Origin.įailure to meet that requirement was a deficiency that Blue Origin argues should have disqualified SpaceX from an HLS award. Blue Origin alleges that SpaceX did not include FRRs before each “tanker” Starship launch, carrying propellant that would fuel the lander Starship. The core of Blue Origin’s argument is that NASA ignored a requirement that bidders include a flight readiness review (FRR) before the launch of each element of the lander systems. The complaint is effectively an appeal of the company’s protest of the Human Landing System (HLS) award to SpaceX that the Government Accountability Office rejected July 30. 22 a significantly redacted version of Blue Origin’s complaint filed with the court Aug.
NASA will resume work with SpaceX under the Option A contract as soon as possible,” the agency said in a statement.WASHINGTON - Blue Origin is seeking to overturn NASA’s award of a lunar lander contract to SpaceX by arguing that SpaceX’s proposal failed to meet requirements for reviews that made it “unawardable.” Court of Federal Claims denied Blue Origin’s bid protest, upholding NASA’s selection of SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a modern human lunar lander. “NASA was notified Thursday that the U.S. With the Blue Origin lawsuit thrown out, NASA appears to be moving forward with its SpaceX contract. NASA’s announcement provided that the number of awards the agency would make was subject to the amount of funding available for the program.” SpaceX’s bid was the highest rated and came in at $2.9 billion, far less than either Blue Origin or Dynetics.īlue Origin said in its lawsuit that if it had known that NASA was going to ignore FRRs and make cost a priority, the company “would have proposed a fundamentally different HLS design,” and it “would have engineered and proposed an entirely different architecture with corresponding differences in technical management and price scores.” Advertisementįurther Reading Here’s why Blue Origin thinks it is justified in continuing to protest NASAThe GAO dismissed both arguments, saying that “NASA did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award. Blue Origin said that NASA’s request for bids called for an FRR for every launch and that SpaceX’s bid only covered one of more than a dozen launches. Such meetings allow NASA officials to be briefed on what will happen during a mission, giving them an important opportunity for oversight of public-private partnerships.
#Judge contract redacted lunar lander lawsuit full
Jeff Bezos was more conciliatory, saying in a tweet, "Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract."īlue Origin claimed that, in granting the award to SpaceX, NASA ignored a requirement that bidders submit a flight readiness review (FRR) for each part of the landing systems. “Returning astronauts safely to the Moon through NASA’s public-private partnership model requires an unprejudiced procurement process alongside sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition.” Further Reading This is probably why Blue Origin keeps protesting NASA’s lunar lander award“Our lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed,” Blue Origin said in a statement.
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