Jeff Bezos’ Space Company Escalates Push for Moon Vehicle Work

Jeff Bezos’ space company has escalated its battle to build a moon lander for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suing the federal government over the agency’s decision to award a sole contract for that work to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

An affiliate of Blue Origin LLC on Friday sued the government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the lander, court records show. In a related filing, the company said the suit protests NASA’s decision on the lander, which it called improper. Blue Origin said it filed the suit under seal to protect sensitive information.

Last April, NASA awarded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the formal name for SpaceX, a $2.9 billion contract to develop a vehicle that it would use to land astronauts on the moon under its Artemis program. Blue Origin and Dynetics, a unit of Leidos Holdings Inc., had also competed to create a moon lander for the agency but failed to win part of the contract.

On Monday, a Blue Origin spokesman said the company filed the suit to remedy what it said were flaws in how NASA handled awarding the contract for the moon lander. The Verge earlier reported on the lawsuit.

NASA officials are reviewing the case, a spokeswoman said.