Bezos offers $2B for moon travel

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin spaceflight company has publicly offered to cover up to $2 billion in NASA contract fees so it can remain involved in the U.S. government’s effort to return astronauts to the moon.

The long-shot bid to persuade the space agency to change course comes after Elon Musk’s SpaceX was selected in April as the primary contractor to build the moon lander and given a $2.9 billion contract for the work.

Blue Origin countered Monday with a highly unusual open letter signed by Bezos .

In it, he criticized NASA’s decision to rely on a single company for the moon lander, an approach he said would “put an end to meaningful competition for years to come” by locking the government into SpaceX’s rocket technology.

He offered to pour billions of dollars in company funding into the effort in exchange for a seat at the table.

“Without competition, NASA’s short-term and long-term lunar ambitions will be delayed, will ultimately cost more, and won’t serve the national interest,” Bezos wrote in the letter.

It’s unclear whether and how NASA will respond. A NASA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The open offer from Bezos marks a significant departure from the normal pace of government procurement, which usually happens behind closed doors through a scripted, bureaucratic process.

It is rare for offers and counteroffers to spill into the public domain.

But NASA is in a unique position because both SpaceX and Blue Origin are deep-pocketed commercial spaceflight companies that are comfortable with paying to develop their own technology.

And Blue Origin can argue that NASA strayed from its original vision by going with a single contract.

The “human landing system” was initially supposed to involve two manufacturers, something that would let the government benefit from redundancy across systems and also give it leverage in any future negotiations. But the agency said it did not have enough room in its budget to issue more than one contract. The $2.9 billion contract given to SpaceX fit within the agency’s budget only because SpaceX agreed to modify its payment schedule, according to a NASA document obtained by The Washington Post.

Blue Origin already has formally challenged the award to Space X.

Tesla quarterly profits top $1B for first time

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Tesla’s quarterly profit has surpassed $1 billion for the first time thanks to the electric car pioneer’s ability to navigate through a pandemic-driven computer chip shortage that has caused major headaches for other automakers.

The financial milestone announced Monday extended a two-year run of prosperity that has erased questions about Tesla’s long-term viability raised during its early years of losses and production problems.

Tesla now has cemented its position as the leader in the shift away from gas-combustion that is expected to make it even more profitable than during its most recent quarter.

The Palo Alto, California, company earned $1.1 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the April-June period.

That was more than 10 times its profit at the same time last year. Revenue nearly doubled from last year to about $12 billion.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, Tesla earned $1.45 a share in the latest quarter, easily topping the 94 cents expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.

Tesla now boasts a market value of roughly $630 billion, far more than any other automaker and 14 times more than what the company was worth just two years ago.

Its mercurial CEO, Elon Musk, is now sitting on the world’s third largest fortune at an estimated $163 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s calculations.

For all its recent success, Tesla’s momentum could still be slowed by a persisting shortage of chips that have become vital parts in modern cars.

From wire reportsWhile other major automakers had to dramatically curtail production during the first half, Tesla so far has been able to secure an adequate supply of chips to churn out vehicles at the fastest rate in its history.

In the most recent quarter, Tesla delivered more than 206,000 vehicles within a three-month span for the first time in its history.

It is also gearing up to add another sports utility vehicle, the Model Y, to its lineup later this year.

But in a sign that Tesla isn’t immune to the shortage of chips and other components that is hurting its rivals, the company disclosed that it will delay the introduction of a highly anticipated semi truck to some time next year.

Its original plan was to introduce it this year.