CNBC: SpaceX and NASA contract is lawful according to US court

A US federal court has ruled that NASA followed the law in awarding the lunar lander contract to SpaceX, according to CNBC. Space company Blue Origin is blunt and remains concerned about NASA’s selection process for the lunar lander.

The court documents and the accompanying motivation have not yet been made public, but news channel CNBC reports that space company Blue Origin has lost the lawsuit it filed against NASA at the end of August, together with the American Dynetics. In it, the space company challenged NASA’s decision to award only SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a lunar lander.

Blue Origin then suggested that the American space agency should hand out multiple contracts and that the organization ‘acted incorrectly’. Moreover, according to the space company, the selection process contained errors and fair competition had to be made possible. The company then filed a complaint in federal court after it also clashed with the US government procurement regulator. However, according to NASA, SpaceX was awarded the contract in the spring because they met the organization’s budgetary requirements.

In an initial response to CNBC, a spokesperson for Blue Origin said the space company’s lawsuit has revealed “some significant security concerns” in NASA’s selection process for the lunar lander. Neither NASA nor SpaceX have yet officially responded. Because Blue Origin filed a lawsuit, NASA temporarily halted development of the lunar lander. That collaboration was restarted at the beginning of this month. The new lunar lander would be used in the Artemis space program that will put people on the moon again from 2024.