Sierra Nevada asks judge to halt commercial crew work

A legal dispute over NASA's commercial crew contracts continued last week with Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems asking a federal judge to stop work on the contracts from proceeding for now.

NASA had told Boeing and SpaceX to get going on the contracts they were awarded last month, worth up to $6.8 billion, even though Sierra Nevada has filed a protest against those awards with the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

NASA claimed that avoiding delay in developing the ability to fly astronauts to the International Space Station "best serves the United States."

Sierra Nevada disagreed, and asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to put the contracts on hold until the GAO rules on its protest in January.

In court filings Sierra Nevada said NASA's decision to proceed with the work was "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion and is contrary to law."

Judge Marian Blank Horn did not immediately rule on the case after a hearing Friday.

Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser mini-shuttle to fly people, while Boeing and SpaceX are developing capsules called the CST-100 and Dragon, respectively. Kennedy Space Center leads NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is overseeing the work.

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