spacetoday.net: GAO rejects lunar lander protests

Posted: Sat, Aug 7, 2021, 8:50 AM ET (1250 GMT)
The Government Accountability Office rejected protests filed by Blue Origin and Dynetics of NASA's Human Landing System (HLS) award to SpaceX. The GAO announced July30 that NASA did not violate procurement law when it decided to make just a single award rather than the two that had been anticipated. NASA also made a "reasonable" evaluation of the three companies' proposals that was consistent with procurement law and regulations. Blue Origin and Dynetics filed separate protests after NASA selected SpaceX for a single HLS contract valued at $2.9 billion, claiming NASA improperly evaluated their proposals and could have taken efforts to revise or even cancel the procurement when funding fell short of earlier projections. NASA said late that day that, with the protests dismissed, it will now move ahead with its contract with SpaceX and will provide an update "as soon as possible" on its plans for Artemis, including the schedule for a human return to the moon.