The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has dismissed protests from Blue Origin and protection contractor Dynetics over NASA’s resolution handy out a single $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX as a part of its Human Landing System Program. On Friday, the watchdog said NASA’s “evaluation of all three proposals was reasonable and consistent with applicable procurement law, regulation, and the announcement’s terms.”
When Blue Origin first challenged the lunar lander contract in April, the corporate claimed the choice course of was “fundamentally unfair” as a result of it didn’t get an opportunity to revise its bid. To that time, NASA may afford to present SpaceX the contract as a result of the corporate agreed to change its fee schedule. Blue Origin additionally took challenge with the truth that the house company chosen a single contractor for the venture when the preliminary announcement had known as for 2 producers to be concerned.
In reviewing NASA’s resolution, the GAO says the house company “did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award.” It notes NASA gave itself the pliability handy out a single contract, a number of awards or none in any respect when it first introduced the Human Landing System Program.
What’s extra, the GAO concluded there “was no requirement for NASA to engage in discussions, amend, or cancel the announcement” because of the quantity of funding it had out there for the venture. Notably, the GAO additionally factors in its press launch that its position is to not decide the relative deserves of a contract resolution. Both Blue Origin and Dynetics had argued that NASA selected probably the most “high risk option available” since SpaceX’s bid concerned its Starship rocket, which at that time within the procurement course of had but to land in a single piece.
The resolution comes mere days after Blue Origin founder and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos supplied to waive $2 billion in funds from NASA in return for a lunar lander contract. Following Blue Origin’s protest, NASA informed SpaceX to cease work on the Human Landing System whereas the GAO sorted out the problem. Today’s resolution permits the venture and the Artemis program extra broadly to maneuver ahead except Blue Origin asks the US Court of Federal Claims to look at the case.
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