Jeff Bezos offers Nasa US$2 billion in exchange for Blue Origin moon mission contract

Fresh off his trip to space, billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos on Monday offered to cover up to US$2 billion in Nasa costs if the US space agency awards his company Blue Origin a contract to make a spacecraft designed to land astronauts back on the moon.

Nasa in April awarded rival billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX a US$2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2024, rejecting bids from Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics. Blue Origin had partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper in the bid.

The space agency cited its own funding shortfalls, SpaceX’s proven record of orbital missions and other factors in a contract decision that senior Nasa official Kathy Lueders called “what’s the best value to the government.”

In a letter to Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos said Blue Origin would waive payments in the government’s current financial year and the next ones after that up to US$2 billion, and pay for an orbital mission to vet its technology. In exchange, Blue Origin would accept a firm, fixed-priced contract, and cover any system development cost overruns, Bezos said.

“Nasa veered from its original dual-source acquisition strategy due to perceived near-term budgetary issues, and this offer removes that obstacle,” Bezos wrote.