NASA picks SpaceX to create system to land astronauts on the moon
Elon Musk’s SpaceX won a NASA contract to develop a system for landing astronauts on the moon, beating out fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and a unit of Leidos Holdings Inc.
NASA awarded the lander contract Friday after 10 months of development work. The plan by SpaceX — which is based in Hawthorne, CA, and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — depends on refining its Starship vehicle and Super Heavy rocket, which are also in development, as a fully integrated lunar landing system, Musk said last year.
The Starship craft is nearing its fifth test;
the previous four suffered mishaps including fires and an explosion.
The lunar-lander contract deepens SpaceX’s increasingly crucial relationship with NASA, which already uses the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules to ferry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX plans to launch its third crew of NASA astronauts to the space station as soon as next week.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-04-16/spacex-lunar-lander-moon-nasa-contract
