Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, filed a lawsuit against the U.S Air Force to protest their contract with two arms makers that allegedly blocked other companies from competing to lead over 36 rocket launches.
The contract, according to SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk, as quoted by Reuters, "essentially blocks companies like SpaceX from competing for national security launches."
Officials filed the complaint to convince the Air Force to retract the contract and reverse their decision to give a sole source award of 36 rocket launches to the United Launch Alliance - a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Air Force authorities also stated that there were 14 additional contracts up for company bid at the time of the contract's announcement.
The Air Force already certified one Falcon flight before SpaceX participated in military competitions. The Falcon 9 owned by the company has flown cargo and commercial resupply launches to other satellites flying in high-altitude orbits to the International Space Station in the past.
"SpaceX is not saying that these launches should be awarded to us," Musk said to Reuters. "We're just ... saying that these launches should be competed. If we compete and lose, that's fine, but why were they not even competed? That just doesn't make sense."
News of the lawsuit came after controversies arose concerning NASA's decision to cut ties with the Russian Space program, due to the Ukraine crisis. This led others to worry about the United States' use of Russian rocket engines, as well as the Air Force's impeded progress on creating their own equipment needed for launching rockets.
Senator John McCain has instructed the inspector general of the Pentagon to investigate the way Air Force handled the matter and the reason for the delay of some important launches.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Jones assured the public that the military supports fair and healthy competitors, but they need to assess whether SpaceX and other companies could launch national security satellites safely.
