Why Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company thinks NASA is taking a big risk with Elon Musk’s SpaceX – morningtidings

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has once again criticised NASA’s decision to award the astronaut lunar lander contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It has pointed out technical details which it claims could be risky for the moon missions. Blue Origin published an infographic on its website where it took a swing at Elon Musk’s Starship, saying that SpaceX using the Starship to transport NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon is “immensely complex and high-risk”.
“There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments, and operations that have never been done before for Starship to land on the Moon,” says the infographic on Blue Origin’s website.

“This includes developing Super Heavy – not only the largest launch vehicle stage ever produced, but one that has to be reusable – and Starship – the first ever reusable second stage. Then, the two systems must work together. A launch site in Boca Chica, Texas that has never conducted an orbital launch must demonstrate the ability to do so 7-11 times within 1-week increments.”, continued the infographic, laying stress on some of the testing that needed to be done and the change in the approaches to be absolutely sure of the success of the mission.
Recently, a US government watchdog sided with NASA over its decision to pick a single lunar lander provider, rejecting a protest filed by Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics Inc. The companies had challenged the $2.9 billion award to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the lander, arguing NASA was required to make multiple awards. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said it “denied the protest arguments that NASA acted improperly in making a single award to SpaceX.” In April, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract to build such a spacecraft as early as 2024. Blue Origin had contended NASA gave SpaceX an unfair advantage by letting it revise its pricing.