Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin still don’t mind seeing SpaceX win NASA’s contract to fly astronauts to the Moon. This time they criticized the Starship rocket system that SpaceX will use for missions to the Moon.
In an infographic posted on its website, Blue Origin mentioned the Starship rocket as an overly complex and risky approach. The company created by Jeff Bezos refers to criticisms made by NASA officials while evaluating Starship for the Artemis program.
"There are a number of unprecedented technologies, developments, and operations for the Starship to land on the Moon," Blue Origin wrote in an infographic, as quoted by CNBC on Friday (6/8/2021).
Blue Origin then compared its lunar landing concept with the SpaceX concept. Blue Origin emphasizes that their lunar landings work similar to those developed by the United States previously, while SpaceX has a different system.
Not only that, Blue Origin also says that SpaceX’s Texas facility has never launched a Starship rocket into orbit. While SpaceX has made more than 100 launches into orbit using the Falcon 9 rocket at other launch centers, Blue Origin has only reached sub-orbit heights.
Blue Origin also claims that it took a SpaceX 10 attempt to land the Starship to the Moon, while they only needed three attempts. Starship rockets also have to go through a refueling process in orbit, something that has never been done before.
Blue Origin infographic criticizes SpaceX rocket Blue Origin Infographic criticizes SpaceX rocket Photo: doc. Blue Origin
Finally, Blue Origin compares astronauts ’exits on lunar landers. The Blue Origin lander is said to be only 31 feet from the surface and astronauts only need a ladder to descend. The SpaceX exit is 126 feet from the surface, so it theoretically needs an elevator to help the astronauts descend.
Jeff Bezos himself showcased a lander named Blue Moon in May 2019. But a year later, Blur Origin partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper to develop a different concept for the Human Landing System.
For information, NASA awarded a contract worth USD 2.9 billion to SpaceX as part of the Human Landing System program. Blue Origin as one of the companies participating in fighting for the contract did not accept it and immediately submitted a formal objection to the Government Accountability Office.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos even offered NASA $ 2 billion to reconsider creating a lunar landing system. In the end, GAO rejected Bezos and Blue Origin’s objections.
Tags
SCIENCES
