Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
---

Title: NASA Opens SpaceX's Moon Lander Contract To Rivals Over Starship
Delays

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/10/22/0...

NASA has reopened SpaceX's $4.4 billion moon lander contract to new bidders
like Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin after delays in Starship's development
threatened the 2027 Artemis 3 mission. Reuters reports: The move paves the
way for rivals such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to snatch a high-profile
mission to land the first astronauts on the moon in half a century. "I'm in
the process of opening that contract up. I think we'll see companies like
Blue get involved, and maybe others," the U.S. space agency's acting chief
Sean Duffy, who also serves as U.S. Transportation Secretary, told Fox News'
"Fox & Friends" program. Duffy's comments follow months of mounting
pressure within NASA to speed up its Artemis lunar program and push SpaceX to
make greater progress on its Starship lunar lander, while China progresses
toward its own goal of sending humans to the moon by 2030. It represents a
major shift in NASA's lunar strategy, starting a new competitive juncture in
the program for a crewed moon lander just two years before the scheduled
landing date. Blue Origin is widely expected to compete for the mission,
while Lockheed Martin has indicated it would convene an industry team to heed
NASA's call. Starship, picked by NASA in 2021 under a contract now worth $4.4
billion, faces a 2027 moon landing deadline that agency advisers estimate
could slip years behind schedule, citing competing priorities. Musk sees
Starship as crucial to launching larger batches of Starlink satellites to
space and eventually ferrying humans to Mars, among other missions. "They do
remarkable things, but they're behind schedule," Duffy said of SpaceX's lunar
lander work, adding President Donald Trump wants to see the mission take
place before his White House term ends in January 2029.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

---
VRSS v2.1.180528