Bezos was a little unbelievable when the Federal Aerospace Administration officially announced that Interstellar Exploration Technology became the only lunar module contractor in the federal huge Artemis moon landing program.

Because it was an extremely immature technology, it defeated the All-Star "national team" composed of Blue Source + Lockheed Martin + Northrop Grumman + Draper.

My skills are obviously the most mature, the highest success rate, and my cooperative power is still so powerful. I dare to call it the "national team" because of this.

He actually lost!

As for the "small business team", the name is explained. It is normal for a team of more than 20 companies to join in the fun and it is passed away.

But Bezos really couldn't imagine why he lost?

In the mission architecture, the SLS will launch three astronauts on an Orion spacecraft for a multi-day lunar orbit tour, and then the two astronauts will be transferred to the lunar module lander, their last stop to the surface of the moon.

After about a week of lunar exploration after landing, they will take off again on a lunar module lander, return to orbit to dock with the Orion spacecraft, and then return to Earth.

You should know that Emmaron's "lunar spacecraft" is very immature, and even exploded several times during the research and development and testing.

So this result is shocking and unexpected.

According to the usual idea, Emmaron's "lunar spacecraft" will at most win the bid in the "three-choice two" stage, and even if he wins the bid, it will become a backup.

Choosing one of three to win the bid is equivalent to giving the final stage of the Federation's return to the moon to Emmaron, and the success or failure of this ship.

This decision is technically quite risky.

Because the other two are traditional Apollo-style lunar modules, they can be transported to the lunar orbit or the lunar space station through mature commercial rockets or SLS to be parked and assembled. The actual working section is just to land and fly away from the surface of the moon.

But since the "lunar spacecraft" is an alien, it is as high as 50 meters and weighs about 100 tons. One "lunar spacecraft" is so big that it can stuff the other two lunar modules into it and is still rich. Even if it is strong like Saturn V or SLS rockets cannot send it to the moon orbit.

What should I do?

Did it teleport?

Emmaron has his own way, that is, his company is developing a "super rocket" booster. As long as it succeeds, it can launch the originally planned "Starship" and the "Moon Spaceship" converted from a Starship into space.

So in fact, the Federal Space Administration used money to fund the research and development of a super rocket spacecraft.

Originally Emmalon had to pay for research and development by himself, but now it is better, and the country has supported it.

As for moon landing or something, it’s all by the way.

But another problem arises, that is, the "Super Rocket" booster can only send the "lunar spacecraft" to space orbit, but cannot directly send it to the lunar orbit.

Then the only way is to fly to the moon by itself.

But this requires a complete reusable starship system to complete development and mature.

Large-scale low-temperature propellant in-orbit filling technology is also needed to overcome and mature it.

Even one raise is not enough. Moon landing ships and starships for refueling require multiple in-orbit raisings.

In addition, we must also overcome a series of security, technical and policy issues that star-borne manned people need to face.

It takes several times to reach the moon once, to be honest, it’s quite irritating... no, it’s quite troublesome!

In short, they are all landing on the moon, and the other two companies are at best considered "ordinary" difficulty, while Emmaron is the "hell" difficulty.

But the Federal Space Administration chose this.

Some people also say that every time the starship under development is tested, the bid evaluation team of the Space Administration will come to observe it in person. It may be this spirit of repeated failures and strong execution that touched the Space Administration and made them make a decision.

Well, just take it seriously.

In addition, the serious shortage of funding for the lunar module by the commander Benzi may be one of the reasons Emmaron's "lunar spacecraft" won the bid.

In the past two years, the budget for manned lunar modules was cut so hard that the final allocation could only satisfy the full work of the family.

If we maintain the original "three-choice two" plan... it means that no one gets enough money.

Then I'm sorry in the end - only those with the lowest price will get it!

Therefore, the R&D contract for the lunar module was exclusively awarded to Interstellar Exploration Technology Company, and the national teams and small businesses gathered together with giants were invincible.

But this is far from the end of the story, but just the beginning!

The two defeated the election were very unwilling to accept this result.

The two companies questioned the public bidding and expressed their appeal.

"You said early on whoever is cheaper, you will choose whoever you want. We all went according to the mature technology and high feasibility!"

"After all, according to common sense, it is definitely the best consideration for these two indicators that are so important. Who knows that you chose the cheapest one in the end?"

"You have to say it earlier, our offer is cheaper."

Anyway, wait until you get the selected one, and the project is halfway through... Cough cough, just raise the price again.

Don't look at me, everyone does this.

Since federal law stipulates that bid complaints must be made within 30 days after bid opening, the two companies submitted 175-page complaint applications to the "Federal Government Accountability Office" during the procurement complaint period.

The appeal point is that the Federal Aerospace Administration has conducted inappropriate assessments of all aspects of the program and does not leave the other two companies the opportunity to adapt to the quotations and bids.

The Federal Aerospace Administration then suspended the execution of the contract against Star Explorer Technology under pressure, and all processes were "freezed" until the Accountability Office made a final ruling.

According to the work process of the Accountability Office, a decision must be made within 100 days.

Since I don't satisfy me, then everyone stops playing.

At that time, many people were dissatisfied with the Federal Aerospace Administration's solo favor to the Emmaron family.

First of all, the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee expressed his disappointment directly, and said that the Federal Aerospace Administration should not announce the tender results on the premise that the new director has not been appointed, and emphasized that manned lunar missions should maintain necessary backups.

The Federal Deep Space Exploration Alliance expressed courteous congratulations to the Space Administration for announcing the bid opening results, but did not mention the winning bidder at all.

Later, the new Federal Aerospace Administration Director took office. He said that regardless of whether the complaints and protests of the "national team" and the "small business team" against the "lunar spacecraft" were successful, he would try to issue a second "lunar module" contract in the future.

The current allocation of Congress is indeed not enough to support the development of the lunar modules of the two companies, so he needs to do some work.

That is how to ask for money.

In fact, Congress currently tends to choose two companies to develop lunar modules. After all, that's safer, but their idea is to invest in two companies with that little money.

But the SAFE is clear about the technical problems. It knows that the amount of money is not enough to invest in two companies, so it gives all of them to Emmalon, worth nearly 3 billion federal coins.

Congress said no, but the SAFE said you don't pay, so I can only choose the cheapest one.

In terms of quotes, Emmaron's "Moon Landing Spaceship" priced at 2.9 billion is indeed the cheapest.

The "national team" lunar module consists of Blue Source Aerospace + Lockheed Martin + Northrop-Grumman + Draper, with a quotation of 6 billion yuan.

The "Small Business Team" Lunar Module is led by Dain Technology, leading 25 subcontractors, with a quotation of 9.9 billion yuan.

Just that little money, who do you think the SA would choose?

Everyone was curious about the group that bidding was lively. Putting aside the political and anger factors, why did the SA insist on choosing Emmaron?

After the bid results were announced, the Space Administration disclosed the bid evaluation documents and publicly explained the bid evaluation process, methods, strategies and results.
Chapter completed!