New Delhi: The US Court of Federal Claims Thursday ruled against Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin in the lawsuit filed by the latter against NASA in August. Blue Origin had filed the lawsuit over a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract awarded by NASA to Elon Musk's SpaceX for the upcoming Artemis Mission.
Federal Judge Richard Hertling ruled in favour of NASA, completing a months-long battle, according to media reports.
In a statement, NASA said work with SpaceX would be resumed "as soon as possible", as the US Court of Federal Claims sided in the agency's defence.
NASA officials wrote in the statement: "There will be forthcoming opportunities for companies to partner with NASA in establishing a long-term human presence at the Moon under the agency's Artemis program."
After the ruling, Bezos mentioned posted a tweet, saying the ruling was "not the decision we wanted". He also wrote that "we respect the court's judgement", indicating that Blue Origin would not file any further lawsuit against NASA on this matter.
The ruling comes amid a heated space race between Blue Origin, SpaceX and billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
What Was Blue Origin's Lawsuit All About?
On August 19, NASA temporarily stopped its lunar lander project after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against its decision to award the $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX.
According to its contract with NASA on April 16, SpaceX is to design and build the Human Lander System (HLS), atop which the Orion Spacecraft will be carried to the Moon from lunar orbit. This is a part of the Artemis 3 mission, the third leg of NASA's Artemis Project.
SpaceX was awarded the contract to build a spacecraft by 2024.
The Artemis project, the first human mission since 1972, aims to carry the first woman, and the first person of colour to the Moon, by 2024.
"Through Artemis missions, NASA will lead the world in landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, conduct extensive operations on and around the Moon, and get ready for human missions to Mars," NASA said in a statement.
Blue Origin and Dynetics had approached the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking it to review NASA's decision, but the office, in a statement made on July 30, rejected their protests and announced that NASA could continue with its deal with SpaceX. After this, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA in the US Court of Federal Affairs on August 13.
The lawsuit described the NASA-SpaceX contract as "an attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA's Human Landing System". It also said NASA's decision had "fundamental issues" and that "limited jurisdiction" was what rendered the GAO unable to address this.
NASA had claimed in a statement that work on the project would be halted it November 1.
The US space agency also stated that "NASA is committed to Artemis and to maintaining the nation's global leadership in space exploration”.
On Thursday, the US Federal Court ruled in favour of SpaceX, and said a protective order to seal documents in the lawsuit would remain in effect.