A judge issued an injunction prohibiting a joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing from buying Russian-made rocket engines. SpaceX, a California-based rocket company, sued the federal government, protesting the Air Force’s award of a lucrative space contract, saying it should have been competitively bid.
In the suit, SpaceX criticizes United Launch Alliance (ULA) for using Russian engines in some of its rockets, which SpaceX founder Elon Musk said might be a violation of U.S. sanctions and was unseemly at a time when Russia “is the process of invading Ukraine.”
Musk alleged that the deal would benefit Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister who heads the Russian defense industry and is named by the U.S. government in the sanctions. In reaction to the sanctions, Rogozin tweeted: “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS [International Space Station] with a trampoline.” Braden’s ruling prohibits ULA from making payments to the Russian engine manufacturer.