Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is protesting NASA’s decision to award SpaceX $2.9 billion for a pair of missions to land on the Moon by 2024. NASA’s Human Landing System program, which funded development of three rival lunar lander prototypes (including Blue Origin’s), was expected to pick two of those landers in April. But NASA opted for just one — SpaceX’s Starship — because of short funding from Congress.
The 175-page Blue Origin protest was filed with the Government Accountability Office less than two weeks after NASA’s selection of SpaceX. Blue Origin has been developing its Blue Moon lunar lander with a “National Team” of established space and defense contractors: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper.
“NASA has…