Blue Origin suffers grave setback as judge dismisses lawsuit against NASA

Enlarge / Jeff Bezos had hoped to build a lunar lander for NASA. (credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

For Blue Origin, the honeymoon is over.

This summer, the company filed a lawsuit against NASA, claiming that the agency ignored its own requirements when it awarded the contract for the Human Landing System, intended to take astronauts to the Moon, to SpaceX. Today, the Court of Federal Claims dismissed the case in a one-page ruling, ending a tumultuous chapter in the relationship between the Jeff Bezos-backed space launch startup and the federal government.

The ruling was brief, simply granting the federal government’s motion to dismiss without going into detail. Judge Richard A. Hertling is giving Blue Origin and the government until November 18 to redact the full opinion before it’s released to the public.