Virgin Galactic has responded to a lawsuit from Boeing accusing the company of withholding its trade secrets. In response, Virgin Galactic filed a lawsuit, accusing Boeing of repeated failures that ultimately led to the termination of the commercial partnership.
Richard Branson’s private space venture is countersuing Boeing over its agreement to develop Virgin Galactic’s next-generation mothership.The company filed the lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday, nearly two weeks after Boeing asked a federal judge in Virginia to issue a Court order blocks Virgin Galactic from further use of proprietary data The two companies share the funds as part of the 2022 agreement.
July 2022, Virgin Galactic Announce Agreement with Aurora, Boeing’s Virginia-based subsidiary, to design and build its next-generation mothership. The mothership is being used as part of the company’s ongoing suborbital space tourism tour, carrying a space plane carrying passengers and releasing it at an altitude of 44,500 feet (13,500 meters) above the ground.
However, the agreement ultimately fell through, with neither company apparently happy with it. Boeing accused Virgin Galactic of “retaining, using and threatening further use of the company’s trade secrets.” Virgin Galactic, on the other hand, claims Boeing repeatedly failed to meet its contractual obligations and “delivered shoddy and incomplete work,” the lawsuit said.
“Boeing now wrongfully seeks to recover certain intellectual property rights formally owned or licensed to Virgin Galactic under the parties’ contract,” Virgin Galactic wrote in the complaint. The company also claims it is entitled to receive compensation for payments it has made to Boeing. Compensation for damages arising from $45 million spent on developing next-generation motherships.
Boeing has been in the spotlight recently for a series of safety issues and scandals.January, one Boeing 737 door jam blown off During an Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet above Portland, Oregon. In late March, former Boeing quality control engineer John Barnett had just testified against the company in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit. found dead. Its long-delayed Starliner spacecraft will finally fly for the first time in early May after years of delays due to technical issues.
“Boeing’s failure to reach an agreement with Virgin Galactic is consistent with Boeing’s record of poor quality control and mismanagement,” Virgin Galactic wrote in the lawsuit.
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