Federal judge Richard Hertling sided with the defence in his ruling, completing a months-long battle after Blue Origin sued NASA in August. However, he did not give his reasons pending a meeting this month on proposed redactions.

NASA in April awarded SpaceX with the sole contract for the agency's Human Landing System programme under a competitive process. Worth $2.9 billion, the SpaceX contract will see the company use its Starship rocket to deliver astronauts to the moon's surface for NASA's upcoming Artemis missions.

With private enterprise now being involved in Space, it seems that government agency decisions are automatically second guessed by those who fail contracts and need to depend on a later court decision before anyone gets any boots on lunar.

NASA must be feeling nostalgic for the socialist days when they could put a human on the moon without involving Big Tech clowns, rich people, and the courts.

Amazon.com founder Bezos, expressed disappointment. "Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract", Bezos wrote on Twitter.

NASA said on Thursday: "There will be forthcoming opportunities for companies to partner with NASA in establishing a long-term human presence at the Moon under the agency’s Artemis program, including a call in 2022 to US industry for recurring crewed lunar landing services."