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 The company, Blue Origin, had filed a protest with the U.S.
General Accountability Office, which arbitrates federal contract
disputes. The GAO said in a decision it denied the company's
protest.
Blue Origin is vying against another company owned by Elon Musk,
co-founder of PayPal and chief executive of electric car company
Tesla Motors, to lease Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Musk's company, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, already
flies rockets from a leased launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, just south of NASA's spaceport.
Blue Origin and SpaceX submitted proposals to NASA to take over
maintenance and operations of Launch Pad 39A so it could be
developed for commercial use.
Before NASA selected a winner, Blue Origin filed a protest, claiming
its proposal to develop a multi-user facility better fit NASA's
declared intention for the pad.
SpaceX, which launches its Falcon 9 rockets from nearby Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, wants to use the pad as a second
Florida base.
Musk told Reuters after the protest was filed that he had no problem
if other companies use the launch pad if SpaceX was awarded a
five-year lease.
"I think it's kind of moot whether or not SpaceX gets exclusive or
non-exclusive rights for the next five years. I don't see anyone
else using that pad for the next five years," Musk told Reuters in
September. "I think it's a bit silly because Blue Origin hasn't
even done a suborbital flight to space, let alone an orbital one. If
one were to extrapolate their progress, they might reach orbit in
five years, but that seems unlikely," he said.
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Blue Origin contended the NASA solicitation "provided for a
preference in favor of a multi-user (as opposed to an exclusive use)
approach to utilizing the launch pad," the GAO said in its ruling on
Thursday.
"NASA took the position that neither approach was favored," the
ruling said.
"GAO agreed with NASA, and in its decision concluded that there was
no preference for either approach," the GAO added.
NASA had hoped to turn over pad operations to a commercial user by
October 1, 2013. The delay is costing NASA about $100,000 per month,
agency officials said.
SpaceX said it had no comment on the GAO ruling. Blue Origin
officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
(Editing by Kevin Gray and Cynthia Osterman)
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