A federal judge has shot down Blue Origin’s lawsuit to stop NASA from awarding a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to rival SpaceX.
On Thursday, the federal judge Richard Hertling dismissed Blue Origin’s legal complaint against both NASA and SpaceX, although the full court order remains sealed.
As a result, the judge’s reasoning behind the ruling remains unclear. But the parties will have until Nov. 18 to propose redactions to any confidential information in the ruling before the court publishes it.
The decision is a setback for Blue Origin, which had claimed NASA improperly awarded the contract to SpaceX by allegedly ignoring certain safely-related requirements during the bidding process. (The company also complained to the US Government Accountability Office about the contract, but in July the GAO rejected the claims, noting Blue Origin's bid offer was significantly higher in price.)
"Our lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed," a Blue Origin spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday. "Returning astronauts safely to the Moon through NASA’s public-private partnership model requires an unprejudiced procurement process alongside sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition."
However, Blue Origin didn’t mention any effort to appeal the ruling. Instead, the company said it’s still working with NASA on lunar landing systems, but through other contracts. In September, the US space agency awarded Blue Origin and four other companies, including SpaceX, to develop “sustainable human landing system concepts” for establishing a long-term presence on the Moon.
“We are fully engaged with NASA to mature sustainable lander designs, conduct a wide variety of technology risk reductions, and provide Commercial Lunar Payload Services,” the Blue Origin spokesperson said.
“We are also under contract with NASA to develop in-situ resource utilization technology, lunar space robotics, and lunar landing sensor collaboration including testing on New Shepard. We look forward to hearing from NASA on next steps in the HLS (Human Lander System) procurement process,” the spokesperson added.
Blue Origin filed the lawsuit back in August after losing out on NASA’s contract to build a landing system for the upcoming Artemis mission, which is scheduled to send humans back to the Moon in 2024.
In response to Blue Origin losing the lawsuit, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a picture of the comic book character Judge Dredd that said: “You have been judged!”