Judge rules against Blue Origin in legal action involving NASA and SpaceX

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled against Blue Origin, who had managed to temporarily block cooperation between NASA and their rival company, SpaceX on a new moon mission.

"Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract," tweeted Jeff Bezos, the head of the Amazon umbrella of companies, including Blue Origin:

According to CNN Business, the collaboration between NASA and SpaceX will now resume "as soon as possible."

As per the wishes of all parties involved in the legal action, the judge's opinion has not been made available to the public at this time, although a redacted version is expected to be made available later in Nov. 2021.

A spokesperson for Blue Origin stated that they absolutely support the moon mission, although they feel that "important safety issues" need to be properly addressed, which was the motive behind the original injunction:

"Returning astronauts safely to the Moon through NASA's public-private partnership model requires an unprejudiced procurement process alongside sound policy that incorporates redundant systems and promotes competition. We look forward to hearing from NASA on next steps in the (Human Landing System) HLS procurement process."

In Apr. 2021, NASA made a landmark decision to pick SpaceX over Blue Origin to work with on HLS technologies. Previously the agency had been making overtures to both companies. It appears that a deciding factor in this choice was the fact that SpaceX's quote was half the price of that of Blue Origin.

Blue Origin has recently completed a successful mission where they sent several civilians to space and back, including Bezos himself, a Blue Origin executive, a former NASA engineer, and actor William Shatner.