OREANDA-NEWS.SpaceX Ilona Mask in court accused the US Air Force of violating the rules of the contract for refusing to provide her with a contract as part of a competition to replace the Russian RD-180 rocket engines, according to CNBC, citing court documents.According to the results of the tender, the order was distributed between the United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin entrepreneur Jeff Bezos and the corporation Northrop Grumman. The lawsuit states that the Air Force Center for Space and Rocket Systems "unreasonably distributed" contracts "to three unknown parameters that did not recommend missiles." SpaceX insists on revising the results of the tender.

The company said it offers its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, as well as the Starship rocket system, which is currently under development. The lawsuit emphasizes that the Air Force, on the basis of a single Starship project of the SpaceX portfolio, assigned a high risk. As specifies Reuters, the competition was held as part of the initiative of the US Department of Defense to ensure the continued access of military to space and reduce dependence on Russian RD-180 engines.

The fact that SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the US government, it became known at the end of last week, then the text of the lawsuit was classified. The lawsuit was filed with the US Federal Court, which considers claims against the government for procurement and contracts. The Washington Post indicated that information about the lawsuit appeared when the US Air Force began preparing major space launch contracts.

In April, the commander of the US space forces, General John Raymond, said that Washington would refuse to purchase additional Russian engines after the 2022 financial year. The US Air Force has a strategy of independent launches into space, the general added. The United States has conducted 76 successful independent launches, and their cost has been reduced by 20% since 2012, he said.