Jeff Bezos, the founder of aerospace company Blue Origin, has set an ambitious goal to overtake his competitor Elon Musk in the space race.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently signed an astronaut lunar lander contract with Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX. Meanwhile, Bezos offered NASA to cover up its costs in exchange for a contract. In a letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos wrote: "Blue Origin will bridge the HLS [Human Landing System] budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2bn to get the programme back on track right now." The billionaire also promised to pay for an orbital mission as a bonus.
SpaceX has been awarded a $2.89 billion moon mission contract. Elon Musk commits to sending four astronauts into lunar orbit on the Orion spacecraft. It is planned that two astronauts will stay there for about a week. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is ready to do it free of charge and even offers bonuses.
By the way, NASA has now time to think. The space agency has suspended the contract with SpaceX because the decision was challenged by its competitors who filed protests with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
