The billionaires are fighting again.
Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space company filed a lawsuit against NASA over one of the agency’s deals with a rival space company.
The lawsuit, filed late last week with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, stems from an April announcement that NASA gave a $2.9 billion contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for lunar landing equipment, and not two companies, like Bezos’ Blue Origin, as expected.
NASA has maintained the decision was made because of a funding shortfall but Blue Origin claims the space agency did not give a proper evaluation to the firms’ proposals. SpaceX’s bid for the contract is believed to have been the lowest that NASA received. Blue Origin’s bid, submitted with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper, was reportedly $5.9 billion.
Last month, Bezos offered to make up NASA’s budget shortfall for the project if the space agency would reconsider Blue Origin’s bid, but NASA did not accept.
The lawsuit is an escalation for Bezos after the Government Accountability Office previously rejected complaints by Blue Origin and Dynetics, a third company that also did not win the contract.
NASA plans to conduct a lunar landing for the first time since 1972 in 2024.
