Musk’s SpaceX Starship advanced, excessive danger

Jeff Bezos’ house firm stays on the offensive in criticizing NASA’s determination to award Elon Musk’s SpaceX with the only contract to construct a automobile to land astronauts on the moon, regardless of the federal government final week denying Blue Origin’s protest.

In an infographic revealed on Blue Origin’s web site and seen on Wednesday, the corporate known as SpaceX utilizing Starship to move NASA astronauts to the lunar floor an “immensely advanced & excessive danger” strategy. Blue Origin is referring to a criticism that NASA officers made in evaluating Starship for the lunar lander program.

“There are an unprecedented variety of applied sciences, developments, and operations which have by no means been performed earlier than for Starship to land on the Moon,” Blue Origin wrote.

Final Friday, the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace denied Blue Origin’s protest of NASA awarding SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract underneath the Human Touchdown System program. In three one-page paperwork, Blue Origin decried NASA’s determination as “flawed for America’s management in house” and repeated its prior critique that the house company “ran an inconsistent and unfair competitors” — although the congressional watchdog dominated that NASA didn’t.

“NASA ran a flawed acquisition and ignored the numerous dangers of a one supplier mannequin,” Blue Origin wrote.

The corporate needs NASA to award a second contract underneath the unique Human Touchdown System acquisition construction. Whereas NASA has mentioned it will provide future contracts underneath HLS by way of Lunar Exploration Transportation Companies awards, these contracts are anticipated to be $45 million or much less every.

Blue Origin made extra technical comparisons, noting that SpaceX’s plan requires greater than 10 Starship launches to land as soon as on the moon and must be refueled in orbit, “a course of that has additionally by no means been performed earlier than.”

Lastly, Blue Origin in contrast the peak of the astronaut exit hatches. Starship’s exit is 126 ft off the bottom, and conceptually makes use of an elevator to carry astronauts to the floor, whereas the Blue Origin lander is 32 ft off the bottom and requires crew drop down a protracted ladder.

One comparability that Blue Origin didn’t make was in regard to value. NASA cited value as a significant component in its determination to solely choose one winner underneath the Human Touchdown System, on account of Congress granting the company a fraction of its requested price range for this system. SpaceX bid $2.9 billion, whereas Blue Origin was roughly double at $5.99 billion.

Within the first spherical of Human Touchdown System contracts, NASA handed out almost $1 billion in idea growth awards – with SpaceX receiving $135 million, Dynetics getting $253 million, and Blue Origin receiving $579 million.

Bezos initially unveiled a lunar lander known as Blue Moon in Might 2019, earlier than pivoting the following 12 months to accomplice with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper on a distinct idea for the Human Touchdown System. Whereas the corporate has not examined any spacecraft in orbit, its companions have — some extent Blue Origin emphasised by saying that its lunar lander “system is completely constructed on heritage techniques and confirmed applied sciences which can be flying in the present day.”

For its half, Blue Origin leverages the rocket engine and touchdown applied sciences its honed with its suborbital house tourism rocket New Shepard over the course of 16 flights.

Blue Origin additionally emphasised that its strategy was easier than SpaceX’s, as Bezos’ lander “solely requires three launches” and has “far fewer in-space rendezvouses.”