SpaceX has won at least a temporary victory against its competitor, space supplier United Launch Alliance. To fulfill its contract with the US Air Force to provide rocket supplies for orbital launches, ULA purchases rocket equipment from Russian company NPO Energomash. The court injunction prohibits the United Launch Alliance (ULA) from purchasing rocket equipment from NPO Energomash due to concerns it might violate economic sanctions against certain Russian government officials.

The injunction was made by Federal Claims Court Judge Susan Braden last Wednesday, indicating that the venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which is a 50/50 joint investment that has a "distinctive, non-compete contract with the US Air Force to launch its satellites, including the super-undisclosed X-37B spaceplane into space," would be breaking the sanction if it pursues purchasing RD-180 rocket engines from Russia's NPO Energomash. The full text of the injunction can be read here.

During an interview with Britain's The Register, a SpaceX spokesperson said that this was a cautious move undertaken by the US Court of Federal Claims to evaluate if the present sole-source contract breaks U.S. sanctions. However, the court order was not SpaceX's goal; its objective is the privilege to vie openly and fairly for the contract with the ULA for the Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). This contract was estimated to be worth $70 billion for the next 15 years, and the ULA won the contract without any sort of competition from other companies. No other company was certified to provide the required launch vehicles.

Space X maintained that the company should be qualified to vie for the EELV contract, but it has to finish three successful test flights before it can be certified to compete for the contract. Two successful flights were completed, but the contract for the 36 rockets was awarded to ULA days prior to SpaceX's third flight.

The U.S. Air Force was not prevented from continuing its current operations by Judge Braden's court order. The ruling is not retroactive, leaving intact current purchase orders between ULA and Russia and not requiring any completed purchases be reversed.

ULA released a statement, saying that the company is worried about the injunction. ULA further declared that the company will use all due effort to work with the Department of Justice in order to resolve the court order.