'Humbled': Elon Musk after NASA selects SpaceX for moon lander
Premium- As part of the Artemis program, NASA said it has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander.
In a move to get ready to send astronauts to the moon, NASA has selected Elon Musk's SpaceX to build a spacecraft to land astronauts to the moon. As part of the Artemis program, the agency said it has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface.
The decision cuts out Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Alabama-based Dynetics, which were companies that had been working with NASA and SpaceX during Artemis' initial phase.
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1 min read . 06:35 AM IST''NASA Rules!!'', Musk tweeted after NASA made the announcement of awarding the $2.9 billion human-lander contract on Friday after 10 months of development work. ''We are honored to be part of the NASA Artemis team,'' he added.
SpaceX in a tweet said, ''NASA has selected Starship to land the first astronauts on the lunar surface since the Apollo program! We are humbled to help NASA Artemis usher in a new era of human space exploration.''
The contract to build spacecraft for the Artemis program is worth $2.9 billion, with the goal of having humans back on the Moon by 2024.
“We awarded the SpaceX contract given the appropriation we have and what we believe are realistic budgets in future years," said Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator.
Adding to the announcement, NASA said that SpaceX has been working closely with the agency's experts during the HLS base period of performance to inform its lander design and ensure it meets NASA’s performance requirements and human spaceflight standards. A key tenet for safe systems, these agreed-upon standards range from areas of engineering, safety, health, and medical technical areas.
SpaceX’s HLS Starship, designed to land on the Moon, leans on the company’s tested Raptor engines and flight heritage of the Falcon and Dragon vehicles. Starship includes a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks. The Starship architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations, the agency added.
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(With inputs from agencies)
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