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NASA said it will reopen the $2.9 billion Artemis III contract initially awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2021 after the company fell behind schedule. Other firms are now invited to bid for the mission to land astronauts on the moon by 2027.
NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, said Monday that while he admires SpaceX, the company “is behind schedule.” Speaking to CNBC, Duffy said, “The President and I want to get to the moon during this term. So, I will reopen the bid and allow other space companies to compete. Whoever gets us to the Moon first, we’ll go with them.”
SpaceX was awarded the 2021 contract to develop Starship, the first commercial human landing system to deliver four astronauts to the lunar surface. Despite a successful eleventh test flight last week, experts told Euronews Next that meeting NASA’s 2027 timeline will only be possible if the next 10 to 20 launches proceed without major issues.
NASA has confirmed that the Artemis II mission, which will orbit but not land on the Moon, has been postponed from late 2025 to early 2026 due to technical problems, while the Artemis III landing is now delayed until 2027.
Duffy cited Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as a potential alternative to SpaceX, noting that the company is already working with NASA on the crewed version of its Blue Moon lander for the Artemis V mission. Other space companies involved in Artemis-related programs include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Axiom Space, Boeing, and Maxar Space Systems.
In a post on X, Musk responded to Duffy’s remarks, saying Blue Origin “has never even launched a payload into orbit, let alone reached the Moon.”
Following Duffy’s announcement, Musk attacked the NASA administrator in a series of social media posts, calling him “Sean Dummy” and questioning his intelligence. “The person responsible for America’s space program can’t have a two-digit IQ,” Musk wrote.
He also launched a poll on X asking his followers, “Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America’s space program?” The poll received nearly 110,000 votes.
Duffy appeared unfazed, responding on X: “Love the passion. The race to the Moon is ON. Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge. When our innovators compete with each other, America wins.”
Duffy reiterated that NASA’s goal is to return astronauts to the Moon before China, which aims to land its own crew by 2030. “We’re not going to wait for one company,” he said. “We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese.”
NASA’s Artemis Program aims to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The first mission, Artemis I, successfully completed an uncrewed lunar orbit in 2022.
Duffy said NASA’s long-term objective remains to establish a lunar base and sustain a permanent human presence on the moon.
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