Jeff Bezos wants to donate up to $2 billion to NASA in order to rekindle the space race between his Blue Origin rocket business and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, the world’s richest man offered to cover billions of dollars in the US space agency’s costs.
Bezos hopes that by doing so, Blue Origin will be reviewed for a contract to build the vehicle that would carry the next astronauts to the moon.
His odd idea comes just months after NASA chose SpaceX over Blue Origin to build the spacecraft for $2.9 billion.
The NASA had hoped to have at least two private-sector businesses compete for the contract to build the spaceship that will ferry men to the lunar surface for the Artemis moon landing missions, a project known as the Human Landing System (HLS).
“To get the program back on track right now, Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments up to $2 billion in the current and next two government fiscal years,” Bezos stated.
Blue Origin proposed working as a “National Team” for the HLS program with frequent government contractors such as Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Lockheed Martin (LMT) to design a lunar lander specifically to service the space station, called Gateway, that NASA plans to put in orbit around the moon as part of its bid for the contract.
However, in April, NASA made the unexpected announcement that it will proceed with SpaceX as the project’s sole contractor, citing cost as the key reason.
Dynetics of Alabama, which has also objected to NASA’s decision to give the contract to SpaceX, submitted a similar proposal.
Bezos underlined the importance of healthy competition for NASA as it works toward a return to the moon, implying that the government would be sorry if it did not do so.
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