Denver Business Journal 6/6/2019 By Greg Avery
Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants the U.S. Air Force to redo of hundreds of millions of dollars in new rocket development contracts awarded last fall, arguing Centennial-based United Launch Alliance gained advantage in military space contracts worth billions.
The Hawthorne, California-based rocket company filed a bid protest lawsuit against the Air Force under seal last month in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A redacted version of the complaint has since been filed.
The lawsuit claims SpaceX “will not be able to compete fairly†against rocketmaker ULA, or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), in an ongoing Air Force bid process to select two companies to split U.S. military and spy agency space launch contracts through 2027.
Companies are due to submit bids for those launch contracts by Aug. 1. The Air Force is slated to chose two winning companies next year.
SpaceX, in its lawsuit, says being left out of the Air Force launch service agreement awards last fall, which helped fund companies’ development of new rockets, puts it at a disadvantage in the bidding.
“Under the circumstances, there is no adequate remedy other than an injunction preventing further investment and performance†of the launch service agreements, SpaceX’s lawsuit complaint argued, urging the court to freeze rocket development funding for ULA, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman while the lawsuit is sorted out.
ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) and the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) that has been the federal government’s main space launch contractor, has intervened in the lawsuit to protect its economic interest. Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin did the same.
ULA declined to comment for this story and referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is represents the Air Force in the case.
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