NASA awarded SpaceX, the billionaire Elon Musk’s company, a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to carry astronauts to the Moon. SpaceX will develop the spacecraft that will take astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Musk’s victory is a blow to Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos. Last year, NASA announced three different contracts for lunar lander development. They were awarded to SpaceX and Blue Origin’s “National Team,” with the expectation that the companies would bring operational vehicles to fruition and compete with each other on price and technology.
The triumph further solidifies the relationship between the US space agency and Musk’s commitment to space exploration. It’s one of his grand ambitions for the future, transporting humans to Mars. The announcement comes two days after SpaceX confirmed a $1.16 billion funding round, with a current valuation of around $74 billion.
SpaceX to reach Mars before 2030
Sixty years after Gagarin, Russia pulled out of the US-led international Lunar Gateway project, a space station in lunar orbit whose first modules are to be launched in 2024.
SpaceX believes that it will manage to reach Mars with its rockets that will arrive long before 2030. The company has the backing of investors such as Alphabet, the owner of Google, and Fidelity Investments, with the ambition to go public in the short term.
SpaceX’s progress has seduced NASA with Spaceship. The spacecraft with a reusable launch system designed to transport cargo and high numbers of passengers can land on celestial bodies and return to Earth. The ambition of the North American space agency is to bring to fruition the Artemis program, the dream of sending astronauts to the lunar surface, one of the few programs from the era of former President Donald Trump that Joe Biden is supporting.
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