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SpaceX founder Elon Musk in Cape Canaveral, Florida: return to the moon?
Photo: JOE SKIPPER / REUTERS
The US space company Blue Origin, supported by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is taking action against the award of the NASA contract for a mission to the moon to the rival SpaceX.
"Nasa carried out a faulty procurement procedure for the program and changed the requirements at the last minute," said Blue Origin to justify the objection to the US audit office GOA (Government Accountability Office).
The actions of the US space agency prevent competitive opportunities, narrow offers considerably and not only delay, but also endanger America's return to the moon, wrote Blue Origin in the 50-page paper.
Nasa had placed a $ 2.9 billion contract this month with Tesla pioneer Elon Musk's space company SpaceX, which a few days ago transported a team with a used rocket to the ISS space station, this month to build a spacecraft.
The spacecraft is intended to bring astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.
Musk himself had just emphasized his lunar ambitions for SpaceX this week.
It was "too long" since people were there, he said.
"We have to go back there."
With the bid, Musks group prevailed against its competitors Blue Origin and the defense company Dynetics.
Blue Origin applied for the project in cooperation with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper.
Even at Musk's most famous company, the electric car company Tesla, things are going well.
In the first quarter of 2021, she earned more than ever.
The adjusted profit (Ebitda) rose within the year by 94 percent to 1.84 billion dollars, as the US company announced on Monday, the turnover by 74 percent to almost 10.4 billion dollars.
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Despite these surprisingly good numbers, Tesla shares fell three percent after the hours of trading.
"Higher environmental certificates, lower taxes and Bitcoin sales have boosted earnings," said analyst Craig Irwin of Roth Capital Partners.
If you take these factors out of the equation, Tesla clearly missed expectations.
Other experts said the revenue was too close to the $ 10.3 billion forecast for investors.
Jesse Cohen of Investing.com said the proceeds were actually only in line with expectations.
Tesla raised $ 518 million in sales of emissions rights to other automakers, an increase of 46 percent.
A payment of $ 299 million to CEO Elon Musk weighed on net profit.
Earnings per share were 93 cents, and Tesla is sticking to the production and delivery targets for the plants under construction in Berlin-Brandenburg and Texas.
Musk is now entitled to billions
The group is benefiting from the strong increase in demand for electric cars in China. In the first quarter alone, the company delivered 184,800 vehicles, more cars than ever before. At the same time, Tesla seems to be suffering less from the current shortage of semiconductors than many other carmakers: Production in the first quarter was roughly at the level of the previous quarter, while other manufacturers struggled with shortages and had to register short-time work.
Because of the strong business, CEO Elon Musk is now entitled to more than eleven billion dollars. With the result, he secured his entitlement to the payment of the fifth and sixth of a total of twelve agreed option tranches. Each tranche gives the CEO the right to purchase 8.4 million Tesla shares at $ 70 each, a discount of more than 90 percent compared to the current price. Musk could cash in the two tranches for nearly six billion dollars. The 49-year-old manager does not have a fixed salary. It is paid exclusively in the form of the agreed options, provided that the requirements are met.
With a market value of more than $ 700 billion, Tesla is the sixth most valuable publicly traded company in the United States.
Tesla is not evaluated according to the criteria of the automotive industry, but according to those of large tech companies.
Between March 2020 and the end of January 2021, the price of Tesla shares increased tenfold to around $ 900.
Most recently, the papers cost $ 738.
apr / Reuters
