2023-05-19 17:37:50
The Federal Government Accountability Office rejected the protests from both companies. Then Blue Origin sued in federal court and lost once more.
Last year, following winning a larger budget from Congress, NASA announced a competition for a second lunar lander. Dynetics and Blue Origin have decided to compete once more, although there have been some changes in the companies involved in the effort. Northrop Grumman, which was part of the original Blue Origin proposal, has moved on to the Dynetics team.
Blue Origin added to its Boeing team; Astrobotic, a small Pittsburgh company developing robotic lunar landing vehicles; and Honeybee Robotics, an aerospace technology company that Blue Origin bought last year.
The Blue Origin lander, designed to carry astronauts to the lunar south pole region, won’t be on the moon for long.
SpaceX’s original contract was for $2.9 billion to supply the probe for the first moon landing during Artemis III, which is currently scheduled for late 2025 but is expected to drop to 2026 or later. In November, NASA exercised a $1.15 billion option in that contract for SpaceX to provide a lander for Artemis IV, a mission scheduled for 2028.
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