Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Beats Air Force in Court -- but Does It Matter?
Some folks just won't take "yes" for an answer.
In a controversial decision, the United States Department of Defense last year awarded United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman, and Jeff Bezos' private space company Blue Origin a combined $2.25 billion in funding to develop new rockets that are large enough to lift massive "national security" satellites into high orbit above the Earth.
The decision angered SpaceX, which was awarded no development money. (Unlike ULA's planned Vulcan rocket, Northrop's unfinished OmegA, or Blue Origin's work-in-progress New Glenn, SpaceX's candidates for these launches -- Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy -- are both already developed, certified by the Air Force, and flying regularly.) SpaceX also worried that it might face prejudice in future launch competitions if the Pentagon should favor launches on rockets that it helped pay to develop over rockets it didn't.
Source Fool.com
