The acting head of NASA said that he will reopen a 2021 contract given to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to other companies for the Artemis III mission.
NASA said it will reopen up the contract for the Artemis III mission that will see humans landing on the Moon in 2027.
SpaceX was awarded the $2.9 billion (€2.47 billion) contract for the Artemis III mission in 2021 to develop the first commercial human lander, the Starship, that will eventually bring four astronauts to the Moon’s surface.
But NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy told CNBC on Monday that while he loves the company, they are running behind schedule.
“The president and I want to get to the Moon in this … term, so I’m going to open up the contract,” Duffy said. “I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX. Whichever one can get us there first, to the Moon, we’re going to take,” he said.
This follows what experts previously told Euronews Next, that while last week’s 11th launch of the Starship was successful, it is unlikely that the company will be able to meet the 2027 deadline unless its next 10-20 tests go well.
Duffy mentioned SpaceX competitors Blue Origin, run by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, as a potential competitor. NASA is already working with Bezos’ company to build a crewed version of their Blue Moon lander that would be used during the Artemis V mission.
Some of the other space companiesalready involved in the Artemis missions include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Axiom Space, Boeing and Maxar Space Systems.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on his social media platform X that Blue Origin “has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the Moon,” in response to Duffy’s comments.
Duffy also gave an update on preparations for Artemis II, a first fly-by mission around the Moon without landing, saying that it is set to launch in early February 2026.
“We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese,” Duffy said. “Get back to the Moon, set up a camp, a base”.
