Key Points
- NASA is opening the contract for its Artemis 3 moon landing mission to competition.
- The agency’s head, Sean Duffy, said the current contractor, SpaceX, is “behind schedule.”
- This will create a new “space race” between American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.
- The pressure is on to beat China, which plans to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030.
NASA is opening up the contract for its next mission to land humans on the moon, a clear sign of growing frustration with the progress of its current partner, SpaceX. The U.S. space agency’s top official, Sean Duffy, said on Monday that SpaceX is “behind schedule” on the Artemis 3 mission, and he wants to bring in some competition.
“I’m in the process of opening that contract up,” Duffy said in an interview with Fox News. “I think we’ll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others.”
“Blue” refers to Blue Origin, the rival space company founded by Jeff Bezos. By opening up the contract, NASA is effectively starting a new “space race,” this time between American companies, to see who can get astronauts back to the moon first.
The Artemis 3 mission, which will use SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, is planned for 2027. But with China aiming to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030, the pressure is on. President Trump reportedly wants the mission to happen before his term ends in January 2029, and Duffy said that SpaceX’s delays are putting that timeline at risk. “They’re behind schedule, and so the president wants to make sure we beat the Chinese,” Duffy said.
While the moon landing mission is facing delays, Duffy did say that the Artemis 2 mission, a 10-day flight around the moon, is on track and could even be moved up to as early as February.
