Laurence Malcom
After weeks of legal battle, the court issued its verdict: SpaceX remains the only partner of NASA in the future HLS.
HLS Series, Continuation and End: After months of legal battles and lawyers’ regrets, Judge Richard Hertling has finally delivered his verdict. In the end, Blue Origin definitely lost its encounter against NASA, and therefore will not be involved in building the future lander for the Artemis mission.
For once, Jeff Bezos was a good loser. As soon as the ruling was announced, the Amazon founder went to Twitter To bring out the white flag. Good player, I declare that Blue Origin”I respect the decision“From the court. As he wished”good luck” To SpaceX and NASA for their collaboration.
But the same couldn’t be said of the SpaceX founder, who was utterly pissed off at the repeated experiments with Blue Origin. Knowing their status as rivals and his disappointment with Bezos as a person, he must have felt schadenfreude upon hearing the verdict. The least we can say is that his reaction was not elegant. He couldn’t resist the temptation to push the point home in a somewhat childish way, and decidedly… Mosquian.
– Elon Musk November 4, 2021
Artemis preparations can finally resume
As a reminder, this story began when the special contracts were awarded to NASA. All envy’s target then was the HLS lander, the true media trophy for Artemis’ future mission. Originally, the agency planned to offer two different contracts. But at the end of a maneuver that is questionable at least from a strategic and ethical point of view, Blue Origin finds itself cut off from the program; Even worse, it is SpaceX’s best enemy who has carved out the lion’s share of this very prestigious mission. Annoyed by his expulsion, Blue Origin opted for a scorched earth policy. At the instigation of Bezos, the company deployed a large judicial arsenal that paralyzed the entire space program for several weeks.
If this ruling is bad news for Bezos and his family, it is quite the opposite for SpaceX and NASA. Thus they can resume their joint developments from where they left before Blue Origin made their own. “NASA to resume work with Space X as soon as possible‘, the agency announced in a communication.
But if there’s one undeniable personality trait in Jeff Bezos, it’s his stubbornness. It would be rude to think that he would be patient in his corner. There is no way for him to watch the Artemis missions take off from the sofa. Blue Origin has already announced that it intends to be a part of the program, one way or another.
If the long-awaited period of calm had arrived like this, it would likely only last for a short while. While waiting to find out what new move Bezos is preparing, preparations for Artemis can finally resume. At least for now.
