After Blue Origin achieved a successful space flight earlier this month, owner Jeff Bazos is seeking bigger projects as he has offered NASA $2 billion in exchange for a contract for Blue Origin to build the next lunar lander to be sent to the moon.
The $2.89 billion contract was originally awarded to SpaceX after a 10-month contest in which SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics were able to begin work on lunar landers. Bezos argues that “Instead of this single-source approach, NASA should embrace its original strategy of competition. Without competition, a short time into the contract, NASA will find itself with limited options as it attempts to negotiate missed deadlines, design changes, and cost overruns.”
Bazos has grown confident in Blue origin after its growing success in space tourism. Currently Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are the only two companies to have sent customers to space. Between the two companies, the space tourism market is valued at $420 billion with Blue Origin already passing $100 million in sales.
Source: CNBC
