The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued his response to Blue Origin and Dynetics protests for the Lander Lunar contract provided by NASA to SpaceX competitors. Protests were submitted at the end of April, which resulted in NASA for a while paused the Lasar Lander contract given to SpaceX while Gao completed two formal protests.

Gao’s statement came from the management of general advice to the law procurement of Kenneth E. Patton. According to Gao, protests including the allegations needed by NASA to provide many contracts in line with “preferences for several awards.”

The statement explains why NASA ended only chose SpaceX for the human landing system demonstration mission (HLS). The problem is boiled to the available funds, with Gao explaining:

NASA made awards to SpaceX at a total evaluation price of $ 2,941,394,557. After noting that SpaceX sent a proposal at the lowest price with the highest rank, and that the offer delivered by the original price and dinnetics was significantly higher, NASA also concluded that the agency did not have the funds needed to make more than one award.

Gao lights up to quote other complaints made in two protests, overcome and dismiss each in turn with the conclusion that “NASA does not violate procurement law or regulations when the device only makes one award.”

This was a blow to the two companies that came just a few days after the Blue Founder Jeff Bezos issued an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson about this issue. In it, Bezos discussed the funding things that appeared behind the decision, noted that the company would cover $ 2 billion, among others. NASA has not responded to the letter, at least not in public.