The edited materials of the US Federal Claims Court discloses the essence of Blue Origin's claim against NASA regarding SpaceX's award of the contract for the Human Landing System (HLS) lunar lander, SpaceNews reported.
According to a published complaint by Blue Origin, SpaceX's proposal ignores the conduct of a flight readiness analysis, which, according to the terms of the tender, must be carried out before each launch under the HLS program. Based on SpaceX's original proposal, the HLS would include 16 launches of the Starship transport system with only one flight readiness analysis procedure.
Blue Origin says the failure to meet the flight readiness analysis requirement is a flaw that makes it impossible for SpaceX to award an HLS contract. “If Blue Origin knew that the [US space] agency would move away from flight readiness analysis and other requirements that strongly affect scheduling and risk, Blue Origin would develop and propose a completely different architecture [HLS] with corresponding differences in technical, management and price parameters, ”says competitor SpaceX.
Blue Origin considers SpaceX's proposal unsafe.
The publication notes that this complaint is in fact an appeal against the decision of the US Audit Office, which refused Blue Origin and Dynetics to revise the results of the tender. At the same time, the Accounts Chamber agreed with corporations that a flight readiness analysis should be carried out before each Starship launch. According to the auditor, this circumstance does not have a significant impact on the choice of the winner. The Audit Chamber has recommended NASA amend its contract with SpaceX to conduct a flight readiness analysis prior to each Starship launch.
Blue Origin's lawsuit against NASA has suspended work on SpaceX's HLS contract until the end of October. The cost of the corresponding agreement is $ 2.9 billion.
The use of HLS is expected as part of the Artemis III mission, when the Americans for the first time, after six successful landings in the 1960-1970s, are to return to the lunar surface. The astronauts are expected to be delivered to the lunar orbit by the Orion spacecraft launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy rocket. In circumlunar orbit, Orion should dock to the Gateway station, from which some of the astronauts will transfer to the HLS lander. In case of delays in the Gateway program, direct connection of Orion and HLS is possible.
SpaceX's HLS is structurally based on the Starship transport system.
In September, Bloomberg wrote that Kuiper Systems, a subsidiary of Amazon, in an appeal to the US Federal Communications Commission, sharply commented on SpaceX's actions, accusing it of violating and ignoring general rules. The organization controlled by Jeffrey Bezos said that Elon Musk's company adheres to the position that “the rules are for other people.” Formally, the dispute between the parties is related to the orbital parameters of the Kuiper and Starlink global Internet access satellites.
