It’s been a tense few days for wannabe Moon-visitors: a contractual battle between builders of the Ares moon rockets is threatening to hold things up. On Friday a report in the Orlando Sentinel told that a contract between United Space Alliance (USA), one of NASA’s main contractors principally for servicing the Shuttle programme, and ATK Launch Systems, due to end on Sunday 21st, wasn’t going to be renewed.

ATK is contracted to NASA to design and build the first stage of the Ares I rocket, for use in future manned-moon missions. USA employees are contracted to ATK to help in the programme. If the contract between the two companies isn’t renewed, work on the Ares rockets stops.

But since Friday, again according to the Orlando Sentinel, it seems that a temporary truce has been called for a week, while details are argued out.

The dispute has been burbling for a while. USA is unhappy that ATK wouldn’t agree to a long term contract to work on NASA’s constellation programme. USA also accuses ATK of poaching their staff. In August, USA filed a suit against ATK for breach of contract.

Interestingly, the second Orlando Sentinel report suggests that since USA said it would no longer work on Ares, ATK has had a rush on job applications. The implication is that workers fretting about the retirement of the Shuttle fleet are now looking for the next spacecraft with long term job prospects.

We will wait and see what is decided in the next week. Meanwhile, there’s still a moon rocket that needs to be built.