Jeff Bezos offered NASA $ 2 billion in exchange for his company’s participation in the preparation of missions to the moon

Amazon and space company Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos wrote an open letter to the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, in which he offered to allocate $ 2 billion to the aerospace department in exchange for his company’s participation in the preparation of missions to the moon.

Bezos expects NASA to contract Blue Origin to develop a lunar lander in exchange for his company to waive up to $ 2 billion in payments from NASA in 2021 and the next two fiscal years.

The company will also independently finance the development and launch of an element for landing on the moon into low-earth orbit.

Bezos’ proposal speaks of increasing competition in space programs.

In April, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was declared the winner of the NASA competition for the development of a system for landing a man on the lunar surface, the contract amount was $ 2.89 billion. Blue Origin also participated in the competition, and after losing it filed a complaint against NASA’s decision.

Last week, Bezos made his first space flight aboard the New Shepard launch vehicle, built by his company Blue Origin. Together with him went into space his brother Mark, as well as 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Damen. Jeff Bezos’ ship took off from a site in the desert in West Texas, the journey lasted about 11 minutes.