The Intercept’s Washington D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim discussed an effort by some Senate Democrats to expand a NASA program to allow for the creation of a $10 billion contract that would most likely benefit Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Grim told hosts Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball that an amendment added to the Endless Frontier Act, legislation aimed at beefing up NASA and other research spending, would create a second $10 billion contract for developing technology to land astronauts on the moon identical to the contract won by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in April.
“Now, there are only three companies that bid,” Grim explained, adding that a third company, Dynetics, was not seen as likely to beat out Blue Origin for the second bid.
“And you can imagine who this one is aimed for,” Grim said. “So it looks like Bezos may have lost but got bailed out anyway.”
Watch more of Grim’s interview above:
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