4 ms·

What's the context of this?

_Microft 5y ago
Blue Origin competed for a Human Landing System ("HLS") [0] contract. SpaceX won a contract and Blue Origin did not. Then Blue Origin complained at the GAO and the complaint was rejected. Management is acting like sore losers ever since. They have released graphics badmouthing SpaceX' Starship [1] and are suing NASA now [2]. The prevailing view is that this behaviour is not just sanctioned by CEO Bob Smith but by Jeff Bezos himself. Search for Blue Origin, HLS and/or GAO for the rest of the story. The coverage by Ars Technica's Eric Berger is usually a good source, you might want to skim the list of his articles [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_... [1] https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-team-lunar-starship-infographic.pdf https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-t... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... [3] https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ Edit: thanks verdverm, I added some links and restructured the post
- verdverm 5y ago
  They have, since the GAO decision, released two jerky info graphics and have most recently sued NASA. Guess they haven't thought about the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you" recently
  - hinkley 5y ago
    How many people have come off looking good by suing NASA? Seems like the Venn Diagram of that includes families of astronauts killed on missions, people who had stuff land on their house, and <checks notes> no, that's about it.
    - iso1210 5y ago
      Didn't Austrailia sue NASA for littering with skylab?
      - hinkley 5y ago
        Is that the 'stuff landing on your house' scenario or are you thinking of a different incident?
      - perilunar 5y ago
        Sort of. The local government area where the debris landed (Esperance, in Western Australia) fined NASA $400 for littering.
        Aeronwen 5y ago
        Which NASA stiffed them on.
    - nickik 5y ago
      SpaceX sued NASA (or at least complained) and won. NASA wanted to award a contract to Space plane Kistler and this was prevented and the contract competed. This however was the GAO and they already rejected Blue complaint. SpaceX also sued Air Force and won that too.
- resolve-ev 5y ago
  They have even drawn the dimensions of Starship wrong in the graphic.(The length from the hatch should be almost 4 times as long not 3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...
- verdverm 5y ago
  I'd add that NASASpaceFlight does a great job of covering this in their weekend round tables. Great place to keep up with all things space related. In particular, they reflect what most of us are feeling w.r.t. recent BO executive moves vs the engineers hard work and passion
- krrishd 5y ago
  Ah, thanks.

Blue Origin competed for a Human Landing System ("HLS") [0] contract. SpaceX won a contract and Blue Origin did not. Then Blue Origin complained at the GAO and the complaint was rejected. Management is acting like sore losers ever since. They have released graphics badmouthing SpaceX' Starship [1] and are suing NASA now [2]. The prevailing view is that this behaviour is not just sanctioned by CEO Bob Smith but by Jeff Bezos himself. Search for Blue Origin, HLS and/or GAO for the rest of the story. The coverage by Ars Technica's Eric Berger is usually a good source, you might want to skim the list of his articles [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_... [1] https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-team-lunar-starship-infographic.pdf https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-t... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... [3] https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ Edit: thanks verdverm, I added some links and restructured the post

verdverm 5y ago
They have, since the GAO decision, released two jerky info graphics and have most recently sued NASA. Guess they haven't thought about the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you" recently
- hinkley 5y ago
  How many people have come off looking good by suing NASA? Seems like the Venn Diagram of that includes families of astronauts killed on missions, people who had stuff land on their house, and <checks notes> no, that's about it.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    Didn't Austrailia sue NASA for littering with skylab?
    - hinkley 5y ago
      Is that the 'stuff landing on your house' scenario or are you thinking of a different incident?
    - perilunar 5y ago
      Sort of. The local government area where the debris landed (Esperance, in Western Australia) fined NASA $400 for littering.
      - Aeronwen 5y ago
        Which NASA stiffed them on.
  - nickik 5y ago
    SpaceX sued NASA (or at least complained) and won. NASA wanted to award a contract to Space plane Kistler and this was prevented and the contract competed. This however was the GAO and they already rejected Blue complaint. SpaceX also sued Air Force and won that too.
resolve-ev 5y ago
They have even drawn the dimensions of Starship wrong in the graphic.(The length from the hatch should be almost 4 times as long not 3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...
verdverm 5y ago
I'd add that NASASpaceFlight does a great job of covering this in their weekend round tables. Great place to keep up with all things space related. In particular, they reflect what most of us are feeling w.r.t. recent BO executive moves vs the engineers hard work and passion
krrishd 5y ago
Ah, thanks.