Blue Origin loses lawsuit over SpaceX's NASA moon contract

A U. S federal judge rejected Blue Origin's lawsuit over SpaceX's nearly $3 billion worth contract with NASA regarding the lunar Human Landing System (HLS) program.

A federal judge rejected Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos' latest legal attempt to overturn NASA's nearly $3 billion moon lander contract with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The decision ended a month-long legal fight between space companies of the two richest men in the world that posed a significant obstacle to NASA's plans for returning humans to the moon's surface for the first time since 1972.

Judge Richard A. Hertling granted motions to dismiss in a one-page order of the judgment. The ruling made it all but clear that whenever American astronauts return to the lunar surface, they will be traveling in a SpaceX made rocketship.

NASA in April awarded SpaceX with the sole contract for the space agency's Human Landing System (HLS) program under a competitive process. The $2.9 billion worth contract will see SpaceX uses its Starship rocket to deliver astronauts to the moon's surface for the upcoming NASA Artemis missions. SpaceX was competing with Blue Origin and Dynetics for what was speculated to be two contracts. However, NASA awarded only one contract due to the US congress's lower than expected budget allocation.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin protested the decision with the U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Still, the GAO in late July denied the company's appeal leading Blue Origin to escalate its legal action. NASA's work with SpaceX on the HLS contract was halted during the lawsuit but is scheduled to resume from Monday.