Jeff Bezos throws $2 billion at NASA to steal SpaceX's lunar contract

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has said to NASA's administrator that his company will waiver $2 billion in payments from NASA.

According to an open letter sent to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has said that his company is willing to waiver $2 billion in payments from NASA for this financial year and the next two in return for a fixed price contract for the construction of a lunar lander. This offer from Bezos is a hail-mary attempt to get a reversal on NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to SpaceX.

The letter reads, "This offer is not a deferral, but is an outright and permanent waiver of those payments". Adding, "This offer provides time for government appropriation actions to catch up." Blue Origin feels as if it was cut out from being an option for the $2.9 billion contract that was given to SpaceX and that NASA moved the goalposts at the last minute, according to a Blue Origin spokesperson that spoke to Engadget.

"Instead of investing in two competing lunar landers as originally intended, the Agency chose to confer a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar head start to SpaceX. That decision broke the mold of NASA's successful commercial space programs by putting an end to meaningful competition for years to come," said Bezos.

At the time of writing this, it's unclear if NASA will overturn the contract given to SpaceX, which is currently frozen in the US Government Accountability Office after Blue Origin officially submitted a protest against NASA's decision.

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