USA Sues ATK Over "Further Piracy"

United Space Alliance Files Lawsuit Against ATK

“United Space Alliance (USA), NASA’s prime Space Shuttle contractor, filed a lawsuit in Brevard County Circuit Court in Florida today against Alliant Techsystems, Inc., and ATK Launch Systems, Inc., seeking damages for fraud and breach of contract, and seeking an injunction against further piracy of USA employees with skills essential to flying out the Space Shuttle manifest.

… ATK concurrently undertook an aggressive campaign to hire critically skilled USA employees, who have been performing specialized work in support of both the Ares and Space Shuttle programs in order to solely perform work on Ares.”

NASA contractors locked in legal battle, Orlando Sentinel

“According to industry officials, there is a possibility that if USA does not get satisfaction in its dispute, the company could stop work on preparations for next years test flight of ATKs Ares I-X rocket. The test rocket is considered an important step toward developing the complete Ares I rocket that is supposed to replace the shuttle by 2015. A delay in the test could impact the already behind schedule Ares I.”

Editor’s note: This certainly does not bode well for a smooth transition from Shuttle to Ares operations.