Blue Origin’s Blue Moon reveal. Photo: Jeffrey Hill/Via Satellite

A judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied Blue Origin’s request for judgement in a lawsuit over SpaceX receiving NASA’s sole lunar lander award on Thursday. 

This uphold’s NASA’s selection of SpaceX in April 2021 for a firm-fixed price, $2.89 billion contract to send astronauts to the Moon on the Starship rocket and to develop the first commercial human lunar lander.   

Blue Origin fought the decision with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and then with the lawsuit in the Federal Claims Court. 

Blue Origin’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos tweeted about the ruling, implying that Blue Origin will not pursue further action. “Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract,” he said. 

NASA said in a statement that the agency will resume work with SpaceX “as soon as possible.” NASA emphasized in its statement that there will be additional opportunities for Artemis contracts, including a call in 2022 to the U.S. industry for recurring crewed lunar landing services.