A U.S. government watchdog denied protests Friday of NASA's nearly $3 billion contract award to Elon Musk's SpaceX to build a lunar lander for astronaut missions.

In denying the arguments made by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Alabama-based Dynetics, the Government Accountability Office noted that NASA's options for the contract were restricted by a lack of congressional funding.

NASA's description of the contract competition had stated that the outcome would depend on that funding, Kenneth Patton, a GAO managing associate general counsel, said in a emailed statement.

"In addition, the announcement reserved the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award at all," Patton wrote. "The protesters could not establish any reasonable possibility of competitive prejudice."

Blue Origin and Dynetics filed the protests in April when they were shut out of the three-way competition.

NASA had said it would like at least two finalists to build two unique landers for upcoming Artemis moon missions. The agency requested $3.4 billion this year for the lunar Human Landing System program, but the Congress appropriated just $850 million.

Since April, several members of Congress have introduced a bill to boost NASA's current funding by $10 billion to make another award under the program. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a June congressional hearing that the agency was prepared to move quickly once the GAO made its decision.

Blue Origin will continue to press for a contract despite the GAO ruling, according to an emailed statement.

"We've been encouraged by actions in Congress to add a second provider and appropriate additional resources to NASA's pursuit to return Americans to the moon," the company wrote.

Blue Origin's bid was evaluated by NASA to cost of $5.99 billion, about twice that of the SpaceX proposal. But Bezos said in an open letter to NASA on Monday that the company would permanently waive $2 billion in payments and absorb the cost of a pathfinder mission to fly its lander in Earth orbit as a preliminary test.

The first Artemis mission, an uncrewed test flight of the SLS rocket and Orion capsule, is scheduled for launch from Florida later this year.

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Bezos offers NASA a $2 billion discount for Blue Origin Moon lander
Washington (AFP) July 26, 2021
Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA on Monday offering a $2 billion discount to allow his company to build a Moon lander. The human landing system (HLS) contract, worth $2.9 billion, was awarded to rival SpaceX in April, but Blue Origin and a third company Dynetics filed protests that are currently awaiting adjudication by the US Government Accountability Office. The United States is seeking to return to the Moon by 2024 under the Artemis program, using the lessons learned ... read more