NASA’s Decision Angers Elon Musk: SpaceX is No Longer Unrivaled in the Moon Race

In the long-delayed Artemis 3 mission, things are changing due to pressure from China. NASA is reopening the bid due to SpaceX’s slow progress, giving Bezos’s Blue Origin a chance to compete. As you might expect, Musk is not pleased with this development.

The prime contractor for Artemis 3, the first crewed mission to return humanity to the Lunar surface after nearly half a century, may change. In April 2021, NASA signed a massive $2.9 billion contract with Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, to provide the first human lander for the Artemis program. Under this agreement, a modified upper stage of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket was to land astronauts on the Moon. However, NASA is reopening the bid, citing dissatisfaction with SpaceX’s development pace.

Sean Duffy, NASA’s interim administrator, stated yesterday, “I love SpaceX; they are a great company. The problem is they are behind. They have stretched their timelines, and we are in a race with China.” Duffy emphasized that the Artemis 3 mission is now targeting 2028, and they want to reach the Moon during this presidential term. For this reason, Duffy announced that he would “open the contract” and allow other space companies, such as Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, to compete with SpaceX.

Blue Origin had previously won a separate Artemis Human Landing System contract worth $3.4 billion in 2023 and planned to land on the Lunar surface during the Artemis 5 mission with its Blue Moon lander. NASA‘s move is expected to bring Blue Origin into the competition for Artemis 3 as well.

Tension Between SpaceX and Blue Origin

NASA’s decision has sparked a new war of words between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Musk, through social media, expressed doubts that Blue Origin has ever launched cargo to the Moon or even carried enough payload into orbit. However, Blue Origin’s gigantic New Glenn rocket carried a prototype of its Blue Ring spacecraft into orbit during its inaugural launch in January.

The planned launch date for the Artemis 3 mission has been continuously delayed over the past few years. Initially set for late 2024, the launch was successively postponed to 2025, September 2026, and mid-2027 due to issues with Starship’s testing phases, spacesuits, and NASA’s Orion capsule, among other technologies. Administrator Duffy’s latest statement indicates the target is now 2028.

So far, the Artemis program has successfully completed the Artemis 1 mission, which sent the uncrewed Orion capsule into Lunar orbit in late 2022. NASA is continuing preparations for the Artemis 2 mission, which will take four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon as early as next February.

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Starship has conducted 11 sub-orbital test flights to date, and the last two launches are known to be completely successful. However, the core of NASA’s concern is that China is also making significant progress toward its goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030, and the US risks falling behind in this space race. Artemis 3 will be the first mission where a human sets foot on the Lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

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