A federal judge Thursday dissolved the temporary injunction issued in the case of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) v. United States, enabling business to continue between the Air Force, launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Russian engine manufacturer NPO Energomash.
U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Susan Braden lifted the injunction after she was satisfied with the Treasury Department’s explanation that business between ULA and NPO Energomash wouldn’t violate economic sanctions. Braden last week issued her temporary injunction with concerns that President Barack Obama’s listing of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on an economic sanctions list could violate sanctions. Rogozin is alleged to have a controlling interest in NPO Energomash, which makes the RD-180 rocket engine the Air Force and ULA use in many national security space launches.
The court had a hearing Thursday in which Braden said she’d keep the injunction active until she received further communication from the Treasury Department Chief Counsel for Foreign Assets Control, Bradley Smith. Braden asked for Smith to appear in court to answer her questions, but the Justice Department, representing the federal government, declined to make Smith available. The federal government late Thursday submitted additional correspondence from Smith, and, apparently satisfied, Braden dissolved the injunction.
The federal government asked for the injunction to be lifted to allow launches scheduled for May 15 and May 22 to continue, arguing that further delays would prevent ULA from receiving critical launch support. According to its launch manifest, ULA has two May launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. One involves the Atlas V vehicle with the RD-180 and another the Delta IV launch vehicle without the RD-180. A lawyer for ULA said during the hearing the company has one, possibly two, engines in manufacturing and development with delivery scheduled for August.
The next development in the case is getting a chronology developed that the two parties can agree on. Braden on Thursday issued a protection order to prevent what could be called proprietary information from being released as part of the timeline. Counsel for the federal government expected the chronology to be finished Thursday. SpaceX is suing the Air Force to force it to compete its sole sourced block buy of 35 launch cores as part of the service’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program to assure the federal government access to space. The Air Force is arguing SpaceX had an opportunity to appropriately protest the sole sourcing and was late to the game.
ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA]. The RD-180 is distributed in the United States by RD AMROSS, a joint venture of NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney of United Technologies Corp. [UTX]