In an astronaut’s mission to the Moon in 2024, one of the companies contracted by NASA was SpaceX Elon Musk, to build a lunar landing system. SpaceX beat Jeff Bezos ’Blue Origin, but it seems the richest man in the world hasn’t given up.
Not enthusiastic, Bezos offered NASA a total of USD 2 billion and in return, so Blue Origin could be reconsidered to create a landing system on the Moon.
Bezos seems to know that NASA is short of money. The legendary space agency only raised $ 850 million in funding in Congress to fund the Moon landers, far from the proposed $ 3.3 billion.
“Blue Origin will bridge the budget shortfall for HLS (Human Landing System) by paying all current fiscal years and two years to the government up to $ 2 billion to reinstate the program,” Jeff Bezos wrote in a letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
Indeed, initially, NASA actually intended to select two companies to be landers, but was hampered by a lack of funds. SpaceX was later chosen because it was considered more experienced in space flight and also cheaper.
Bezos is so frustrated with the loss of Blue Origin that he is now trying to ask NASA to give his company a chance. He also presented the advantages of the Blue Origin landing system, which is an extension of the system used to land Apollo 11 astronauts.
"We created a 21st century lunar landing system inspired by the architecture of Apollo 11 that has many benefits. One of the most important is to prioritize safety," said Bezos, who a few days ago flew into space.
SpaceX’s victory was greeted with protests by Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos for being unfair, but it appears NASA’s decision is final. With this billion -dollar allure, Blue Origin is finally involved in addition to SpaceX.
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