NASA and SpaceX have agreed to a voluntary “stay of performance” on the lunar lander project as they prepare arguments in response to Blue Origin’s federal claims court protest.
SpaceX was awarded the $2.89 billion contract in April for its Starship human landing system, tasked with delivering two astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024. Jeff Bezos’ Kent-based rocket company filed the suit in federal court Aug. 13 challenging the decision, after a protest it lodged with the Government Accountability Office was denied in July.
NASA and the two companies have agreed to a schedule that includes a temporary stay of performance until Nov. 1 while they file their responses. The parties have agreed to file motions and replies by Oct. 6 and the court plans to hold oral arguments Oct. 14.
NASA and SpaceX did not immediately return the Puget Sound Business Journal's requests for comment.
The complaint remains sealed since it contains proprietary information about the lander bid, but Blue Origin’s motion for the protective order described NASA’s selection process as “unlawful and improper.”
NASA has cited cost as the deciding factor among the proposals submitted by Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, Blue Origin and Huntsville, Alabama-based Dynetics. In its failed GAO protest, Blue Origin argued that the agency should have made multiple awards as it originally intended or amended the procurement process when its funding would not stretch to cover multiple lunar landers.
In an open letter to NASA, Bezos has since offered to shave $2 billion off the nearly $6 billion price tag for its lander.
