Blue Origin Loses Legal Fight Over SpaceX’s NASA Moon Contract
The New York Times
A federal judge rejected the argument by Jeff Bezos’ rocket company that NASA unfairly awarded a lunar lander contract to Elon Musk’s firm.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected Jeff Bezos’ latest legal attempt to overturn NASA’s multibillion-dollar moon lander contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ending a monthslong battle between the space companies of the world’s two richest men.
The dispute created a significant obstacle to NASA’s plans for returning humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. The ruling leaves Mr. Bezos’ company with few other legal avenues to challenge the contract, making it more likely that whenever American astronauts return to the lunar surface, they will be traveling in a spacecraft built by Mr. Musk's company.
But NASA has been unable to work on the program with SpaceX for the duration of Blue Origin’s legal challenges, which may delay the return to the moon.
