Musk had wanted that funding for his next-generation rocket, Starship, but Air Force officials ultimately felt that vehicle was too advanced. Musk’s firm lost that challenge, with the court finding in a sealed ruling that the Air Force had not erred in selecting among the competing bids. Blue Origin in the courtsįor one example, consider SpaceX’s most recent litigation with the government: In 2019, it sued the US Air Force after the branch awarded development funding for future military rockets to three competitors- Blue Origin, ULA, and Northrop Grumman-but not SpaceX.
These cases helped create an environment where NASA and the US military are more willing to use open bidding for contracts that might previously have been awarded with much less transparency. But the ultimate outcome was a settlement that allowed SpaceX to begin bidding on military launches and break ULA’s monopoly in 2015. Much of that litigation is still sealed due to national security concerns and proprietary corporate data. (SpaceX had also challenged the creation of that monopoly in 2006.)Īgain, SpaceX framed its challenge as a demand for fair competition that would benefit the government as well as its own bottom line. Nine years later, in 2014, SpaceX sued the government again this time challenging the US Air Force’s decision to award a multi-launch contract to United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture that held a monopoly on US government spaceflight. SpaceX challenged the case, arguing that if the government wants commercial rocket test data, it should accept competitive bids, not hand a contract to a company led by a former high-ranking NASA official. It suddenly received a $227 million NASA contract to share its test data with the government. At the time, another nascent rocket maker, Kistler Aerospace, was on the verge of bankruptcy.
SpaceX sued NASA in 2005, before it even launched its first rocket. A brief history of rocket start-up lawsuits But it’s worth looking at how this challenge diverges from others that arguably opened up low-earth orbit for business. In a way, they’ve helped define the rise of commercial space companies and SpaceX itself. Lawsuits between contractors and the government aren’t uncommon. The other members of its consortium, the companies Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, declined to comment on the lawsuit their partner has brought. Blue’s initial challenge to that decision was rejected by the Government Accountability Office, which found that NASA had not played favorites in choosing just one contractor due to lack of funding for two. Last week, Blue sued the space agency in federal court, arguing that it inappropriately awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for a lunar lander to Blue’s chief rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
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