Amazon founder Jeff Bezos penned an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson arguing that his space exploration company, Blue Origin, should be tapped for the Artemis Program.
NASA describes the Artemis Program as “the twin sister to Apollo” devoted to “using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before” and collaborating with other organizations to “establish sustainable exploration for the first time.”
The agency was initially supposed to award contracts to multiple companies, but in April, a single $2.89 billion contract went to SpaceX. Work on the program stopped in May because Dynetics and Blue Origin complained about this shift to the US Government Accountability Office.
Now, shortly after launching into space himself, Bezos has made a public appeal to NASA on Blue Origin’s behalf. But he didn’t argue that Blue Origin should get the contract instead of SpaceX; instead he said that both companies should work on the Artemis Project.
Bezos put his money where his pen was by offering to have Blue Origin waive up to $2 billion in federal payments related to the Artemis Program over the next three fiscal years. “This offer is not a deferral,” he wrote, “but is an outright and permanent waiver of those payments.”
He also said Blue Origin could “contribute the development and launch of a pathfinder mission to low-Earth orbit of the lunar descent element to further retire development and schedule risks,” which he said is “above and beyond the over $1B of corporate contribution” from its proposal.
His final offer: “Blue Origin will accept a firm, fixed-priced contract for this work, cover any system development cost overruns, and shield NASA from partner cost escalation concerns.” Those guarantees would make it far easier for the space agency to manage the project’s costs.
Bezos said these commitments would provide “time for government appropriation actions to catch up” to NASA’s ambitions. Many consider the agency underfunded, especially given its ambitions of sending humans to Mars, for which the Artemis Program would lay the groundwork.
