American watchdog rejects Blue Origin protest against NASA contract with SpaceX

The US government watchdog GAO has quashed Blue Origin’s protest against NASA’s appointment of SpaceX to build a new lunar lander. According to the watchdog, NASA evaluated the applications fairly and did not violate any law.

Space company Blue Origin and American defense company Dynetics were dissatisfied at the end of April that only one contractor had been appointed to build a new lunar lander for the Artemis space program that should put people on the moon again in 2024. This despite the fact that the original tender left room for two parties.

According to the U.S. watchdog Government Accountability Office, however, NASA’s choice to side with one side is not illegal. NASA could choose to appoint only one party, two parties, or none. “The rules for these contracts are different from the standard federal government contracts that are issued.” According to the GAO, NASA also chose the most cost-effective option with SpaceX and was unable to make two tenders. The space agency will pay about $3 billion to SpaceX.

A spokesperson for Blue Origin said against TechCrunch that the company still believes there are “fundamental issues” with NASA’s appointment of SpaceX. “The GAO was unable to address these issues because it has no jurisdiction over the matter. We believe the two-way option is still the right solution and are optimistic about NASA’s recent statement of intent to re-enable competition,” it said.