NASA withdraws order
Bezos takes a swipe at Musk on Mondlander
03/24/2022 01:57 am
Both aim high: Tesla boss Musk and Amazon founder Bezos apply with their space companies for the NASA contract for the first commercial moon lander. First, Musk wins the tender. But then Bezos lodges a complaint – and is now successful.
After a complaint from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the US space agency NASA has now reopened the race for the first commercial moon landing device. Bezos’ space company Blue Origin was unable to prevail against billionaire Elon Musk’s competitor SpaceX in a NASA lunar lander tender.
With an official complaint, however, Blue Origin and the company Dynetics, which was also defeated, were initially unsuccessful. Nevertheless, NASA announced that they were still looking for products that compete with the SpaceX lunar lander. “Competition is critical to our success on the surface of the moon and beyond,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said at a news conference.
SpaceX is still committed, but is asked to expand its proposal. In addition, other American companies would be asked for proposals for a second moon lander. Bezos had previously tried to change NASA’s mind with an offer of money. The Amazon founder wrote in an open letter that Blue Origin would bear the costs of up to two billion dollars for the development and production of the moon lander if the company were allowed to compete again against competitor SpaceX.
Mission planned for 2025
NASA had initially not responded, at least not publicly. The order is part of the so-called Artemis program. Planned for 2025 at the earliest, the mission will take four astronauts into lunar orbit in the Orion spacecraft, where two of them will transfer to a lander for the final approach to the moon. A kind of space station is also to be created on the moon and used as a basis for a manned flight to Mars – but that will only happen in the distant future.
Last week, NASA deployed the rocket system for Artemis – consisting of the “Space Launch System” rocket and the “Orion” capsule – for the first time for test purposes at the Cape Canaveral spaceport. However, before the system is to be tested unmanned for the first time in May at the earliest, there are still numerous tests to be carried out.