Enlarge / Vulcan's core stage is lifted into a processing facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in January 2023. (credit: United Launch Alliance)
Shareholders of a pension fund that includes Amazon stock have sued the company, its founder Jeff Bezos, and its board of directors for "breaching their fiduciary duty" as part of a contract to acquire launch services for the Project Kuiper megaconstellation.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday and first reported by the Delaware Business Court Insider, alleges that in purchasing launches for Kuiper, Amazon failed to consider SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket. This was the only prudent choice that would have enabled Amazon to launch half of its constellation by a 2026 deadline, the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs say that the Falcon 9 costs less than its competitors and has other advantages, such as being available now. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges, SpaceX was never considered due to an intense and personal rivalry between that launch company's founder, Elon Musk, and Bezos, who has a competing rocket company in Blue Origin.
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