The article doesn't seem to match your headline
From what I gathered in the article, the government decided (for whatever rea$on) not to prosecute the shipper accused of leaking the oil. It didn't say anything about the data not standing up in court, meaning that the data wasn't deemed credible. If the article is accurate, it sounds like the data from the satellite (and supported by data gathered by aircraft) was sound. If that's the case, then there must be other rea$on$ why the ca$e wasn't pro$ecuted.