NASA announced on Friday that Elon Musk's SpaceX has won a $2.89 billion contract to build a lunar lander to ferry astronauts from spacecraft to the moon's surface.
SpaceX was one of three companies that submitted bids to build the ferrying system. According to a document obtained by The Washington Post, SpaceX's Starship "was the lowest among the offers by a wide margin." The losing competitors were Alabama-based defense contractor Dynetics, and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
Funding from Congress has been a major issue for NASA for the last two years.
Beyond the cost, NASA was also interested in Starship's "potential to greatly improve scientific operations" by carrying large amounts of cargo to the lunar surface.
Thus far, every test flight of Starship prototypes has ended in an explosion. SpaceX is reportedly quickly building new test vehicles. Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA's Human Landing System or HLS program manager, has said that NASA is providing close oversight of this development, "ensuring that this system will be safe for our astronauts."
This contract represents the first time NASA has used a private company to build their human lander. In recent years, the space agency has become increasingly dependent on commercial partnerships for its missions. This mission alone includes systems built by Lockheed-Martin
"With this award, NASA and our partners will complete the first crewed demonstration mission to the surface of the Moon in the 21st century," Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate said in a statement." With this mission, the agency hopes to take "a step forward for women's equality and long-term deep space exploration."
NASA has announced that it is planning to include a person of color in its team, as well as including at least one woman in the landing team itself, making this mission the first time a woman has set foot on the moon. 18 astronauts were selected to train for the mission last year.
Lueders added, "This critical step puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration and keeps our eyes on missions farther into the solar system, including Mars."
Named the Artemis program, this mission is aiming to put Americans back on the moon by 2024. After the Artemis mission, NASA hopes to extend exploration to Mars and beyond.
The mission itself will include a week-long exploration of the moon by two astronauts. A total of four astronauts will be sent on a multi-day trip to the moon's orbit in the Lockheed Martin Orion Spacecraft powered by the Boeing Space Launch System or SLS.
Once in orbit, the SpaceX Starship will transport two of those astronauts to the lunar surface where they will complete a week-long exploration before returning to the Orion and then to Earth.
This isn't the first time that NASA has contracted SpaceX for one of its important missions. Just this Thursday, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to ferry four astronauts to the International Space Station. One of those astronauts, Akihiko Hoshide, a veteran astronaut from Japan, said the "brand new spacecraft...looks fabulous."
