Blue Origin is suing NASA over lunar lander contract with SpaceX

Blue Origin, the aerospace company of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is suing space agency NASA over its decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to SpaceX.

Blue Origin is “challenging NASA’s illegal and inappropriate evaluation of proposals,” the company writes. The indictment was filed on Monday and remains sealed behind a protective order, the news agency also writes Reuters and American news medium CNBC. NASA must submit a response by Oct. 12.

Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company escalates an ongoing conflict between the company and NASA with the lawsuit, with Blue Origin protesting a contract NASA gave SpaceX to build a lunar lander. Blue Origin argues that NASA should have awarded multiple contracts, and that NASA “acted incorrectly” by awarding a contract only to SpaceX. NASA awarded only a single contract for the upcoming Human Landing System program because the budget was lower than expected.

A few weeks ago, the US Government Accountability Office rejected an earlier protest from Blue Origin over the SpaceX lunar lander contract. That regulator stated that NASA’s decision to award a single contract is not illegal. That protest prevented SpaceX from starting the lunar module project for three months while the GAO reviewed the matter. The new lawsuit may cause further delays.

Following the GAO’s decision, a Blue Origin spokesperson said to TechCrunch that the company still believes there are “fundamental issues” with NASA’s appointment of SpaceX. Blue Origin also stated that the GAO could not address these issues because the regulator does not have the proper powers to rule on them.

SpaceX and NASA have not yet responded to Blue Origin’s new lawsuit. Jeff Bezos previously offered to pay $2 billion of NASA’s costs if the space agency offered a lunar lander contract to Blue Origin, also wrote The Wall Street Journal late last month.

Blue Origin launched its first manned spaceflight last month