The U.S. Court docket of Federal Claims dominated in opposition to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Thursday within the firm’s lawsuit versus NASA over a profitable astronaut lunar lander contract awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this yr.
Federal Choose Richard Hertling sided with the protection in his ruling, finishing a monthslong battle after Blue Origin sued NASA in August.
NASA stated in a press release that work with SpaceX will resume “as quickly as potential” now that the ruling has been issued.
“There will likely be forthcoming alternatives for firms to companion with NASA in establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon beneath the company’s Artemis program,” the company added.
Jeff Bezos, left, and Elon Musk
Getty Pictures; Reuters
A Blue Origin spokesperson stated in a press release to CNBC that the corporate’s lawsuit “highlighted the necessary issues of safety with the Human Touchdown System procurement course of that should nonetheless be addressed.”
“Returning astronauts safely to the Moon by way of NASA’s public-private partnership mannequin requires an unprejudiced procurement course of alongside sound coverage that comes with redundant methods and promotes competitors. Blue Origin stays deeply dedicated to the success of the Artemis program,” the corporate stated.
Bezos personally added in a tweet that the ruling was “not the choice we wished,” however famous that “we respect the court docket’s judgment” – implying that his firm is not going to attraction the choice additional.
SpaceX didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the ruling.
Musk, in a tweet replying to CNBC’s report on the ruling, posted a photograph from the 2012 film “Dredd.”
NASA in April awarded SpaceX with the only real contract for the company’s Human Touchdown System program beneath a aggressive course of. Price $2.9 billion, the SpaceX contract will see the corporate use its Starship rocket to ship astronauts to the moon’s floor for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions.
A variation of SpaceX’s Starship rocket for NASA’s HLS program.
NASA
SpaceX was competing with Blue Origin and Dynetics for what was anticipated to be two contracts, earlier than NASA solely awarded a single contract on account of a lower-than-expected allocation for this system from Congress.
Blue Origin rapidly protested the choice with the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace, however the GAO in late July denied the company’s appeal – main Bezos’ house firm to escalate its authorized motion. Bezos can also be the founding father of e-commerce large Amazon.
A redacted version of Blue Origin’s lawsuit revealed the corporate’s criticism targeted on proving that NASA wrongly awarded the contract to solely SpaceX and “disregarded key flight security necessities” within the course of.
Hertling’s ruling dismissed Blue Origin’s claims. The court docket’s opinion is at the moment sealed, because the case incorporates data proprietary to the businesses, however the events have been ordered by Hertling to ship proposed redactions by Nov. 18, to publicly launch the opinion.
NASA’s work with SpaceX on the HLS contract was halted in the course of the lawsuit however is scheduled to renew Monday.
