NASA picks Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft for manned moon missions

NASA picked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a spacecraft that can be used for astronauts to go back to the moon.

SpaceX beat out two competitors to win the $2.9 billion contract, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Dynetics, a defense contractor, lost to SpaceX in the bid even though NASA was expected to pick two companies for the project.

SpaceX’s offer also “was the lowest among the offerors by a wide margin,” the document obtained by the Post, which is owned by Bezos, said.

NASA had been expected to pick two companies to build the lunar lander to encourage competition, the Post noted.

NASA’s Artemis program is plotting the next manned mission to the moon. The documents suggest it chose SpaceX partly because the company put a bid on their reusable Starship spacecraft that has a lot of room for cargo.

The original timeline set by former President Trump, who launched the program, was to get the U.S. back on the moon by 2024, but the Biden administration is reviewing that timeline. 

SpaceX’s victory could help Musk realize his mission of space exploration and his eventual goal to land humans on another planet.