[skissane]

> Despite Bezos' offer to lower Blue Origin's $5.9 billion contract and take on $2 billion out-of-pocket, the GAO said NASA had found it "implausible" that the company could reduce its price without significantly changing its design.

The US government has rules limiting the ability of contractors to provide the government with subsidised services. The fear is that a contractor will provide massive discounts to win the contract initially, then jack up the price once the government is locked-in. Bezos' offer to tip in $2 billion likely violates those rules.

SpaceX is contributing its own funds towards HLS Starship, but that is allowed by the rules because it can demonstrate it is a commercial investment for non-NASA customers – Starship is a generic system to meet many use non-government cases, including Starlink, commercial launch customers, and private tourism (e.g Dear Moon), and the HLS-specific aspects are a relatively small part of the overall system cost. By contrast, Blue Origin has no concrete evidence of any customer for Blue Moon except NASA, so it can't claim that its contribution is a commercial investment.