SpaceX's Elon Musk sues the government in sealed complaint

Elon Musk's SpaceX is pursuing the federal government again.

But this time, he wants his protest against a government contract to remain under seal, which means that his allegations will not be made public.

In a petition filed on Friday in the Federal Claims Court, the company said that confidentiality was necessary because the complaint contained "confidential and proprietary information as well as information on the selection of the wrong source to be made public". , with several attachments, under seal.

The question of whether the complaint and other documents remain under seal will be decided by the court. The Federal Claims Court hears cases against the federal government, including claims and contractual claims.

The file did not clearly indicate which government procurement program the company was preparing to take up, but this comes at a time when the Air Force is preparing to award large launch contracts worth billions of dollars. dollars to two companies. Last year, SpaceX lost a first tranche of funding from the Air Force to help companies develop their rockets to meet the stringent requirements of launching national security satellites.

Musk said the company had submitted an offer for the contract, but that its proposal "missed the target," according to a Pentagon study.

While SpaceX was losing funding, three of its competitors – the United Launch Alliance (ULA), Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin – shared more than $ 2 billion for their rockets.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The court filing was first reported by GeekWire.

The Air Force should choose two companies next year that would split the Pentagon launches. But this purchase has already triggered a political battle in Washington.

Since the beginning of its funding, SpaceX has been concerned about being at a disadvantage when choosing the two suppliers. At the same time, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has lobbied the Pentagon and members of Congress to slow down purchases as his rocket will not be ready to fly next year. (Bezos owns the Washington Post.)

SpaceX has repeatedly sued the government for public procurement. In 2014, he assigned the Air Force to the latest round of military launch contracts, claiming that it should be allowed to compete with ULA, a Lockheed Martin and Boeing joint venture, which held the monopoly of the contracts for a decade.

Eventually, the Air Force and SpaceX settled the case, and SpaceX has since won several lucrative contracts.

Earlier this year, the group also protested a $ 150 million contract that NASA awarded to ULA for a robotic mission on asteroids around Jupiter. Two months later, he withdrew the demonstration without saying why it had reversed its trajectory.