Blue Origin has filed a go well with with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over NASA’s resolution to award a profitable lunar lander contract to SpaceX. The transfer is elevating eyebrows, given Jeff Bezos’s previous remarks about how such lawsuits hinder progress in area.

The non-public area firm, owned by Jeff Bezos, filed its go well with in an “attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA’s Human Landing System,” as a Blue Origin spokesperson defined in an e-mail.

NASA had initially supposed to award two contracts for the Artemis lunar lander, however Congressional cuts to its FY2021 funds precluded this risk; NASA received $850 million of the $3.3 billion it requested for. Instead, NASA awarded a lone $2.89 billion contract to SpaceX in April. Blue Origin, together with its companions Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper, have been asking for a $5.99 billion contract.

Blue Origin, together with the opposite loser, Dynetics, filed protests with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), claiming that the bidding course of was unfair and that NASA was obligated to award a number of contracts. The GAO disagreed, saying the area company’s “evaluation of all three proposals was reasonable and consistent with applicable procurement law, regulation, and the announcement’s terms,” because it articulated in its July 30 report.

Not able to admit defeat, Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA Bill Nelson in July, saying he’d waive all funds as much as $2 billion in trade for an prolonged HLS contract. The firm additionally launched an infographics warfare, detailing what it perceives as deficiencies within the SpaceX answer, particularly the unproven Starship platform.

Elon Musk has responded in form. Earlier this month, the SpaceX CEO tweeted an unflattering picture exhibiting a deflated mock-up of the Blue Origin lunar lander.

And now Blue Origin is taking NASA to federal courtroom. The firm argues that the “issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition, and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America,” in line with the Blue Origin spokesperson. Further particulars concerning the lawsuit weren’t supplied. The go well with was filed on Friday, August 13 within the Court of Federal Claims, and Blue Origin was granted a protecting order to “protect confidential, proprietary, and source selection information” on August 16, as SpaceInformation reports.

NASA mentioned it’s conscious of the lawsuit and that is “currently reviewing details of the case,” because the company defined in an announcement.

Bezos’s ruthlessness, cynicism, hypocrisy, nevertheless one needs to explain it, is on full show right here. As SpacePolicyOnline factors out, Bezos has previously spoken on this precise topic—corporations suing NASA for misplaced contracts—and the way this serves to hinder progress. Here’s what Bezos needed to say in 2019 when speaking on the JFK Space Summit:

To the diploma that massive NASA applications develop into seen as jobs applications and that they need to be distributed to the best states the place the best Senators stay, and so forth. That goes to alter the target. Now your goal is to not, you understand, no matter it’s, to get a person to the moon or a girl to the moon, however as an alternative to get a girl to the moon whereas preserving X variety of jobs in my district. That is a complexifier, and never a wholesome one…[…]

Today, there can be, you understand, three protests, and the losers would sue the federal authorities as a result of they didn’t win. It’s fascinating, however the factor that slows issues down is procurement. It’s develop into the larger bottleneck than the expertise, which I do know for a reality for all of the effectively which means individuals at NASA is irritating.

A pissed off Jeff Bezos, it will appear, is intentionally working to frustrate the “well meaning people at NASA,” and sluggish issues down. And certainly, it’s very attainable that this go well with, just like the GAO protest, which quickly halted the HLS undertaking, will as soon as once more lead to delays. Landing Americans on the Moon in 2024 appears more and more unrealistic with every passing day. To additional complicate issues, NASA possible received’t have its next-generation spacesuit prepared till 2025, and its upcoming SLS rocket has but to launch.

All this bluster from Blue Origin is a bit perplexing, given {that a} second contract for a lunar lander is all however inevitable. NASA has made it clear that it needs a number of touchdown platforms and that that is basic to its long-time period objectives on the Moon.

At SpaceX, it’s enterprise as standard, at the least for now. Elon Musk’s firm not too long ago stacked its Starship rocket atop a Super Heavy, creating—albeit quickly—the tallest rocket ever constructed. Musk said an orbital check flight of this behemoth may occur in a number of weeks, pending regulatory approval.

More: SpaceX Starship stacking produces tallest rocket ever constructed.