Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said the agency will open up the Artemis 3 contract to other spaceflight companies because SpaceX has fallen behind schedule.
As China makes significant progress toward a 2030 Moon landing, NASA is growing restless. Recent setbacks in the development of NASA’s chosen lunar lander—SpaceX’s Starship—have agency leaders eyeing alternative options.
In 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to provide the first crewed lunar lander for the agency’s Artemis program. The lander—a modified version of Starship’s upper stage—is supposed to land astronauts on the Moon for the first time on the Artemis 3 mission, slated to launch in mid-2027. But after Starship’s development veered off track this year, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said he plans to “open up the contract” to competitors.
“SpaceX had the contract for Artemis 3,” Duffy said during a CNBC appearance on Monday. “The problem is they’re behind. They push their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China. The president and I want to get to the Moon in this president’s term.”
“So, I’m going to open up the contract,” he continued. “I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and again, whatever one can get us there first, to the Moon, we’re going to take.”How did we get here?
The year got off to a rough start for SpaceX’s Starship program. The megarocket suffered three back-to-back launch failures between January and May, causing significant delays to its development timeline and raising concerns about whether it will be ready for Artemis 3.
