Seattle: Fresh from his trip to space, Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos on Monday offered to cover the cost of NASA $ 2 billion if the US space agency gave a award of the company blue from making a spaceship designed to land astronauts back to the moon.
NASA in April gave an Entrepreneur Miliader Elon Musk rival was a $ 2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the surface of the moon at the beginning of 2024, rejecting an offer from the Cynetic Contractor from Blue and Defense.
Blue origin has partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper in the offer.
The Space Agency cited the shortage of funds itself, records of orbital missions and other factors that were proven in the contract decision that the official Senior Lueders Kathy called “what is the best value for the government.” In a letter to the NASA administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos said that Blue Origin would ignore the payment in the government’s current fiscal year and the next one after that up to $ 2 billion, and paying the orbital mission to baunch the technology.
Instead, blue origin will receive a company contract, fixed price, and includes a refund of system development costs, said Bezos.
“NASA turns the strategy of the original dual acquisition because of the perception of a short-term budget problem, and this offer removes the obstacle,” Bezos wrote.
“Without competition, the ambition of short-term and long term NASA will be postponed, in the end it will be more expensive, and will not serve national interests,” Bezos added.
NASA and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Before choosing SpaceX, NASA has asked for a proposal for a spacecraft that will bring astronauts to the surface of the month under his artemis program to restore humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.
The original lunar sea is called “Blue Moon.” Bezos and Musk each are the first and third richest people in the world, according to Forbes.
Bezos’s offer came six days after he flew three crew to the edge of the space above the new rocket-and-capsule shepard, a milestone for the company’s offer to become a major player in the tourism market that appeared.
After losing to SpaceX, Blue Origin proposed protests with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), accusing NASA to give Spacex an unfair advantage by letting him revise the price.
Gao’s decision was expected in early August, even though the industry’s source viewed the possibility of an impossible reversal.