Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin loses lawsuit over NASA contract awarded to SpaceX


Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has lost its lawsuit against NASA.
The Amazon founder's company took legal action against NASA over a contract that was awarded to Elon Musk's SpaceX. But on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled against Blue Origin, siding with the defense, CNBC reports.
NASA earlier this year announced it picked SpaceX to "continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface" in a $2.9 billion contract. Blue Origin was also vying for this, and it was originally expected that two contracts would be awarded. Blue Origin sued in August, challenging NASA's "unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals." According to CNBC, Blue Origin also accused NASA of having "disregarded key flight safety requirements."
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The Government Accountability Office previously said NASA "did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award" and that the agency did so after determining it "it only had sufficient funding" for one.
A spokesperson for Blue Origin told CNBC on Thursday its lawsuit "highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed." Musk replied to an article about the decision with an image from the movie Judge Dredd with a caption that read, "You have been judged!"
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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