SpaceX’s prototype Starship SN10 rocket is tested in Texas on March 3, 2021.
Nasa announced Friday that it has chosen SpaceX to send the next U.S. astronaut to the moon, the first time since 1972. A major victory for Elon Musk’s company.
The $2.9 billion contract is for the prototype Starship spacecraft, which is being tested at the SpaceX facility in Texas.
Lisa Watson Morgan, head of the Nasa program, said, “I am very pleased today, and we are all very pleased to announce that we have awarded SpaceX to develop our moon landing system.”
Musk’s SpaceX beat out Dynetics and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to be the sole supplier of the system. This is a departure from NASA’s past practice, which often chose several companies in case one of them failed.
All for the Moon
SpaceX tweeted: NASA has chosen Starship to send the first astronauts to the moon since the Apollo program! We’re proud to help NASA’s Artemis program (@NASAArtemis) usher in a new era of human space exploration.
Musk tweeted, “Everything to the moon!” (Everything to the moon!)
The move strengthens Elon Musk’s company, according to industry analysts cited by AFP. The company, founded in 2002 with the goal of conquering Mars, is NASA’s preferred private sector partner.
Last year, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully send astronauts to the International Space Station. The move restores the U.S. ability to accomplish this feat for the first time since the U.S. ended its Space Shuttle Program.
SpaceX launches the reusable Starship. The spacecraft can carry large numbers of people and cargo for long-distance space travel and can land vertically.
A prototype of the rocket is currently being tested in Texas, but so far, all four attempts to fly have ended in explosions.
Lunar-orbiting space station
As part of the Artemis program to return humans to the moon, NASA hopes to use the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket to launch the Orion capsule with four astronauts on board. The capsule is docked with a lunar orbital station called Gateway.
The Starship’s rocket will be waiting to receive the two crew members of the team before completing the final leg of the journey to the lunar surface.
Watson-Morgan said the idea is for the Gateway to be the intermediate station, but for the initial mission, the Orion capsule could dock directly with the starship.
The astronauts would then spend a week on the moon before boarding a Starship rocket to return to the lunar orbit intermediate station and then return to Earth in the Orion capsule.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s ambitious goal is to combine its Starship with its Super Heavy rocket to create a 120-meter-tall spacecraft that would be the most powerful space vehicle ever built.
The last time humans set foot on the moon was at the end of 1972, just before the end of the Apollo program.
Now NASA wants to return to the moon and establish a space station in lunar orbit as a lasting foothold to test new technologies and pave the way for a manned mission to Mars.
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