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On Thursday, NASA awarded nearly $ 1 billion in contracts to three space companies, including those belonging to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, to develop lunar landers as the United States seeks to return humans to the Moon.
The human landing system contracts were awarded to Musk’s SpaceX, Bezos’ Blue Origin and Dynetics, who receive $ 967 million.
The three will compete against each other during the contract period, which ends in February 2021, when NASA will decide which of them will have the opportunity to conduct demonstration missions.
“The United States is moving forward with the final step necessary to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have contracted companies to do the work for the Artemis program.”
The human landing system is one of the central elements of the Artemis mission, along with the rock from the Space Launch System, the Orion crew capsule headed by Lockheed Martin and Gateway, a small space station that will orbit the Moon.
The announcement comes as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 230,000 people since it first emerged in China late last year, and has halted the global economy.
Bridenstine said it was more important than ever that the mission move forward.
“I want to say that it is important for this agency to do this now, because our country, and indeed the entire world, has been rocked by this coronavirus pandemic,” Bridenstine said.
“And yet we have to give people hope. We need to give them something they can admire, dream about, something that inspires not only the nation but the whole world.”
