Rocket Lab is still hoping to build NASA’s next Mars orbiter. The agency tapped Blue Origin for that job earlier this month, giving Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company $700 million to develop, launch and operate the Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN). However, today (September 11), Rocket Lab announced that it challenged that decision and filed a formal protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Award decision for Mars Telecommunications Network. NASA’s award decision appears to be inconsistent with the eligibility criteria mandated by Congress. Additionally, the… pic.twitter.com/g48AWgiIoRS September 11, 2026 “NASA’s award decision appears to be inconsistent with eligibility criteria mandated by Congress. Additionally, the agency’s punitive review of Rocket Lab’s technical volume was inconsistent, making incorrect claims and conclusions,” Rocket Lab said today in an X post that laid out its argument. “Procurement standards exist to ensure fair competition and protect public investment.” the California-based company added. “We are conducting this review to ensure those standards are upheld for the critical infrastructure that will support U.S. exploration of Mars for decades to come.” You may be interested As its name suggests, the MTN orbiter will serve as a communications link between mission controllers here on Earth and other NASA spacecraft studying the Red Planet. Only two of the agency’s orbiters serve in that relief role today, and both are quite old: Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lifted off in 2005. NASA had been studying a new Mars telecommunications orbiter for years and finally got Congressional funding for it in July 2025: $700 million, to be precise. The agency issued a request for proposals last May, sparking considerable interest from the private sector. Blue Origin and Rocket Lab were widely considered the favorites, and NASA ended up choosing Blue. The award requires the company to deliver MTN (which, despite the “network” in its name, is a single spacecraft) to NASA by December 31, 2028. It is expected to be operational on the Red Planet by 2030. Blue Origin has been in Rocket Lab’s shoes before and has performed similarly. Bezos’ company filed a protest with the GAO in 2021 after NASA chose SpaceX to provide the first crewed lunar lander for the agency’s Artemis program. The GAO denied the protest in July of that year. Blue Origin then sued NASA, but lost in court in November 2021. However, the story has a happy ending for the company: NASA also decided to select a second Artemis lander, and Blue Origin won that contract in 2023. We’ll see how this story plays out for Rocket Lab…
