Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos offered NASA to cover billions of dollars to reconsider Blue Origin in NASA’s near-term budgetary shortfall costs.
In an open letter Monday to the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)’s Administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos offered to cover 2 billion in the US space agency’s costs if the agency reconsiders Blue Origin for a contract to build the aircraft that will ferry the next astronauts to the moon.
The space agency initially intended to have at least two private-sector companies compete to build a spacecraft for the first moon landing since 1972 — a project called the Human Landing System or HLS.
But back in April, NASA surprisingly awarded its $2.9 billion contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, rejecting a bid from Bezos’ Blue Origin.
“Without competition, a short time into the contract, NASA will find itself with limited options as it attempts to negotiate missed deadlines, design changes, and cost overruns,” Bezos wrote. “Without competition, NASA’s short-term and long-term lunar ambitions will be delayed, will ultimately cost more, and won’t serve the national interest.”
“Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2 billion to get the program back on track right now,” he wrote.
“This offer is not a deferral but is an outright and permanent waiver of those payments. This offer provides time for government appropriation actions to catch up.”
In an open letter, Bezos formally offered the following for the agency’s consideration:
- Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2B to get the program back on track right now. This offer is not a deferral, but is an outright and permanent waiver of those payments. This offer provides time for government appropriation actions to catch up.
- Blue Origin will, at its own cost, contribute the development and launch of a pathfinder mission to low-Earth orbit of the lunar descent element to further retire development and schedule risks. This pathfinder mission is offered in addition to the baseline plan of performing a precursor uncrewed landing mission prior to risking any astronauts to the Moon. This contribution to the program is above and beyond the over $1B of corporate contribution cited in our Option A proposal that funds items such as our privately developed BE-7 lunar lander engine and indefinite storage of liquid hydrogen in space. All of these contributions are in addition to the $2B waiver of payments referenced above.
- Finally, Blue Origin will accept a firm, fixed-priced contract for this work, cover any system development cost overruns, and shield NASA from partner cost escalation concerns.
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