Bezos: Open Letter to NASA Administrator Nelson

blueorigin.com

6 points·_Microft··5 comments

He's nothing if not persistent. But Blue Origin has consistently under-performed, which is one of the reasons they lost the bid. All of Jeff's persuasion and all of his money can't alter that fact. He's trying to tout the BE-7 engine when the BE-4 has missed several deadlines and still isn't ready. Should NASA take a chance on a company that has yet to get itself together?

It's very interesting he would make this an open letter for the public to see. Outright waiving billions of dollars in payment shows he can afford to take a huge short term loss to get more contracts in the long term. He really wants to take that contract from SpaceX. It's going to be interesting to see how Musk responds.

He already did in the original proposal.

SpaceX is still cheaper, has some 10 times more capability of cargo delivery to the Moon and working hardware.

NASA will never agree to what Blue Origin is proposing, unless congress changes the law.

Blue Origin will, at its own cost, contribute the development and launch of a pathfinder mission to low-Earth orbit of the lunar descent element to further retire development and schedule risks.

Is this Blue Origin saying they'll catch up to where SpaceX is already without charging NASA for it? How is that even part of the mission?

They are trying to short change SpaceX to get future contracts with NASA. I guess they can take the loss, which is huge, for their long term prospects.

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