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The NASA Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justice have launched investigations into allegations that Boeing may have benefited from inside information provided by the space agency during a contract award procedure, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The affair led to the sudden resignation of Doug Loverro, then head of NASA’s human exploration directorate, in May.
At the time it was known that his departure was linked to a procurement process, but the details were not clear.
According to the Post, Loverro called Boeing’s senior vice president of space and launch Jim Chilton in February to inform him that the company would lose a contract to build a lander for the Artemis program to return to the moon.
Loverro wanted to know if Boeing would try to contest the decision, potentially delaying the award by months at a time when the agency was trying to meet a timeline to reach the lunar surface by 2024.
Boeing then sought to review and resubmit its offer, a potential violation of procurement procedures, the Post said, citing unnamed sources.
In the end, NASA picked three finalists: SpaceX, a team led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and defense contractor Dynetics.
“The agency is confident in the integrity of Human Landing Systems (HLS) supply,” NASA told AFP.
“Mr. Loverro was not the selection officer and his resignation has no impact on the execution of these HLS contracts.”
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
“We have no further comment on this story,” a Boeing spokesperson said.
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