The U.S. federal claims court on Tuesday denied a motion by United Launch Alliance seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed by privately held SpaceX against the company and the U.S. Air Force.
Judge Susan Braden said she denied the motion because the case was still ongoing, and none of the actions taken by Congress or the Air Force in recent weeks invalidated the SpaceX lawsuit. SpaceX is challenging the Air Force's decision to award 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a venture of Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp.
In a four-page decision, Braden said the court had been briefed on two earlier motions to dismiss filed by the U.S. government, and SpaceX's request for a judgment on the administrative record, which was filed on Dec. 19.
She said the court would not rule on pending motions for discovery or on the merits of the case until after the end of a mediation process that is due to begin this month.
Officials at SpaceX and United Launch Alliance had no comment on the court order. The judge in August barred the parties from discussing the closely-watched lawsuit.
There has been growing interest in SpaceX's U.S.-based rocket launch capabilities given mounting congressional concern about the cost of ULA launches and the company's use of Russian-built engines to power one of its two launch vehicles.
But the effort to certify SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies, to compete for some military and intelligence satellite launches has taken longer than expected.
The Air Force last week said it hoped to certify SpaceX no later than mid-2015, six months later than initially expected. [ID:nL1N0UM18M]
It also announced it was launching an independent review of its certification process, also to be completed by mid-2015.
It said SpaceX was making substantial progress toward certification and had met 80 percent of the required criteria.
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