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Artist’s concept of a Starship on the moon. Credit: SpaceX
NASA has selected SpaceX to build a spacecraft to land the first astronauts on the Moon since 1972, choosing Elon Musk’s space company over competing proposals from Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and the aerospace firm Dynetics, officials announced Friday.
A derivative of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship vehicle will carry the astronauts to the lunar surface and launch the crew members back off the Moon. Under NASA’s plans, the astronauts will blast off from Earth on the agency’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and fly an Orion capsule to the vicinity of the Moon, then transfer into the Starship for the final leg of the journey to the surface.
NASA picks SpaceX to build Artemis program s lunar lander UPDATED 7:44 PM ET Apr. 16, 2021 PUBLISHED 5:32 PM ET Apr. 16, 2021 PUBLISHED 5:32 PM EDT Apr. 16, 2021
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Nearly a year after announcing that three companies would compete for the chance to build the Human Landing System, NASA’s next vehicle to land humans on the Moon, NASA announced Friday that SpaceX would win that contract.
What You Need To Know
NASA has tapped SpaceX to design and build the Artemis program s lunar lander
The Artemis program is NASA s attempt to return humans to the moon by 2024
Blue Origin and Dynetics were the other two groups competing for the contract
Blue Origin based on its high first bid. We are looking to learn more about the selection, a Blue Origin spokesperson told Insider.
Many figures in the space and
science communities are seeking more details about how NASA chose only SpaceX for its return to the moon, when the agency s stated plans called for two commercial partners.
SpaceX had been competing against Blue Origin and
Dynetics for a pair of contracts for NASA s
Artemis program. But NASA on Friday announced SpaceX would get an exclusive $2.9 billion contract.
Blue Origin had partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper to form The National Team.
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Archyde
April 18, 2021 by archyde
NASA chose SpaceX to send America’s next astronauts to the moon, a first since 1972, the space agency said on Friday, granting Elon Musk’s company a major victory.
The $ 2.9 billion contract is for the Starship prototype spacecraft, which is being tested at a SpaceX site in Texas.
“Today, I am very excited, and we are all very excited to announce that we have awarded SpaceX the development of our moon landing system,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, responsible for this program at NASA.
SpaceX edged out Dynetics and Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin and became the sole supplier of the system, a break from the past, as NASA often chose multiple companies if one failed.