NASA Awards Elon Musk’s Space X A $2.9 Billion Contract
NASA Awards Elon Musk’s Space X A $2.9 Billion Contract. NASA awarded billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company Space X a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the moon as early as 2024, the agency said on Friday, picking it over Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics Inc. “NASA Rules!!” Musk wrote on Twitter after the announcement.
The U.S. space agency awarded the contract for the first commercial human lander, part of its Artemis program. NASA said the lander will carry two American astronauts to the lunar surface. Bezos and Musk – the world’s first and second richest people respectively, according to Forbes – were competing to lead humankind’s return to the moon for the first time since 1972.
“We should accomplish the next landing as soon as possible,” Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator, said during the video conference announcement. “If they hit their milestones, we have a shot at 2024,” Jurczyk added. NASA said Space X’s Starship includes a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moon walks and that its architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars and other destinations in space.
Space X also responded on Twitter, writing, “We are humbled to help @NASAArtemis usher in a new era of human space exploration.” Unlike the Apollo landings from 1969 to 1972 – the only human visits to the moon’s surface. According to Yahoo Finance, NASA is gearing up for a longer-term lunar presence that it envisions as a stepping stone to an even more ambitious plan to send astronauts to Mars. NASA is leaning heavily on private companies built around shared visions for space exploration.
“We have to be able to provide for recurring lunar services,” Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems division told Yahoo Finance. NASA’s decision was a setback for Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast who is now more focused on his space venture after having announced in February he would step down as Amazon CEO.
According to Yahoo Finance, Musk has outlined an ambitious agenda for Space X and its reusable rockets, including landing humans on Mars, but in the near term, Space X’s main business has been launching satellites for Musk’s Starlink internet venture, and other satellites and space cargo.
