Jeff Bezos offers to cover ‘billions’ in NASA costs for chance to take part in moon missions
In an open letter to NASA, Jeff Bezos has offered to waive billions of dollars in payments from the space agency in order to ensure his company Blue Origin gets to take part in its upcoming moon missions.
With a potential funding shortfall threatening to derail NASA’s planned moon missions – in particular its Human Landing System (HLS) – the billionaire founder of Amazon and the world’s wealthiest person has offered to bridge the financial gap “by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2bn to get the program back on track”.
His letter follows protests which Blue Origin filed with NASA after the agency awarded a contract worth nearly $3bn to SpaceX back in April to provide a lunar lander that will carry astronauts to the surface of the moon.
NASA’s new Artemis mission will return the space agency to the moon. Pic: NASA
It comes less than a week after Jeff Bezos himself ventured into space as part of Blue Origin’s first human mission, a feat which he controversially thanked Amazon employees and customers for paying for.
In his letter, Mr Bezos warned that the agency’s contract with SpaceX “broke the mould of NASA’s successful commercial space programs by putting an end to meaningful competition for years to come”.
He said the decision “eliminated the benefits of utilising” Blue Origin, which has designed its system so that it is “capable of flying on multiple launch vehicles, including Falcon Heavy, SLS, Vulcan, and New Glenn”, while SpaceX’s system would require “10+ Super Heavy/Starship launches just to get a single lander to the surface”.
“Instead of this single source approach, NASA should embrace its original strategy of competition,” the letter said, noting NASA has begun to solicit new lunar lander proposals.
Blue Origin added to NASA that it will continue to develop and launch, at its own cost, a pathfinder mission to low-Earth orbit and an uncrewed moon landing mission as part of its work on the HLS.
The Lunar Gateway: An orbital outpost around the moon. Pic: NASA
NASA has not yet responded to the letter.
However, an audit report by NASA’s office of inspector general has warned that the Artemis programme – which aims to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 – is “unlikely” to be achieved within this timeframe.
Artemis is named after the mythological sister of Apollo, the first moon mission’s namesake.
Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
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