Musk’s high-risk SpaceX Starship complex

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Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos walks with Blue Origin President and CEO Bob Smith after Bezos makes the company’s inaugural flight to the edge of space in nearby town from Van Horn, TX, U.S. July 20, 2021.

Joe Skipper | Reuters

Jeff Bezos’ space company remains on the offensive in criticizing NASA’s decision to award Elon Musk’s SpaceX the only contract to build a vehicle to land astronauts on the moon, though the government has denied the Blue Origin’s protest last week.

In an infographic posted on the Blue Origin website and seen on Wednesday, the company called SpaceX using Starship to transport NASA astronauts to the lunar surface an “extremely complex and high-risk” approach. Blue Origin refers to a criticism made by NASA officials when evaluating Starship for the lunar lander program.

“There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments and operations that have never been done before to make Starship land on the moon,” wrote Blue Origin.

The United States Government Accountability Office last Friday denied Blue Origin’s protest against NASA awarding SpaceX a $ 2.9 billion Human Landing System contract. In three one-page documents, Blue Origin denounced NASA’s move as “bad for US leadership in space” and repeated its previous criticism that the space agency “conducted inconsistent and unfair competition. “even though the congressional watchdog ruled that NASA didn’t.

“NASA made a flawed acquisition and ignored the significant risks of a single-source model,” Blue Origin wrote.

The company wants NASA to award a second contract as part of the original human landing system procurement structure. While NASA has said it will offer future contracts under HLS through contracts for lunar exploration transport services, those contracts are expected to be $ 45 million or less each.

Spaceship review

SN15 prototype rocket launched from Boca Chica, Texas.

EspaceX

The SN15 prototype spacecraft rocket lands on the company’s landing pad on May 5, 2021 in Boca Chica, Texas.

EspaceX

Blue Origin made further technical comparisons, noting that SpaceX’s plan requires more than 10 Starship launches to land once on the moon and must be refueled in orbit, “a process that has never been done before.”

Finally, Blue Origin compared the height of the astronaut exit hatches. The spacecraft exit is 126 feet from the ground and conceptually uses an elevator to bring astronauts to the surface, while the Blue Origin lander is 32 feet from the ground and requires the crew to descend a long ladder.

One comparison Blue Origin did not make was about cost. NASA cited cost as a major factor in its decision to select only one winner under the Human Landing System, as Congress gave the agency a fraction of its requested budget for the program. SpaceX offered $ 2.9 billion, while Blue Origin was roughly double at $ 5.99 billion.

In the first round of Human Landing System contracts, NASA distributed nearly $ 1 billion in concept development rewards, with SpaceX receiving $ 135 million, Dynetics $ 253 million, and Blue Origin $ 579 million. of dollars.

Blue Origin lander

A mock-up of the crew landing vehicle at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in August 2020.

Blue Origin

Bezos initially unveiled a lunar lander called the Blue Moon in May 2019, before pivoting the following year to partner with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper on a different concept for the human landing system. Although the company has not tested any spacecraft in orbit, its partners have a point made by Blue Origin that its lunar lander system “is built entirely on legacy systems and proven technologies that are flying today.” .

For its part, Blue Origin is harnessing the rocket engine and landing technologies it perfected with its New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket in 16 flights.

Blue Origin also pointed out that its approach was simpler than SpaceX’s, as Bezos’ lander “only requires three launches” and has “a lot less rendezvous in space.”

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