NASA no longer thinks SpaceX should have dibs and wants companies to compete with it over its contract to put astronauts back on the moon. 

NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon, requires a key component known as the Human Landing System (HLS), a lunar lander variant of SpaceX’s Starship, for which SpaceX holds a weighty contract it won in 2021.

Unfortunately, Starship’s development has struggled, plagued by technical hurdles, and NASA seems to have had enough. 

SpaceX is in competition for a NASA contract

“I’m in the process of opening that contract up,” acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy said on Monday. “We’re going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the moon first.”

Opening the contract up at this stage would not be necessary under usual circumstances, as the agency’s signature human space exploration program has already advanced. However, the latest development points to mounting concerns within the Trump administration over the leaps China has been making where space travel is concerned. 

“I love SpaceX. It’s an amazing company,” Duffy told CNBC. “The problem is they’re behind. They’ve pushed their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China.”

What Duffy meant by “opening up” SpaceX’s contract is still unknown, and so is whether he sees a new bidding process or the clawing back of funds. 

What all this means is that SpaceX is now hard-pressed to deliver results. Earlier this month, it carried out another largely successful test of its Starship rocket. However, it is still a long way from mastering the many novel technologies that are required to make moon landings a success, especially the ability to refuel Starship while it is in orbit and launch the vehicle roughly a dozen times or more in a row. 

According to Duffy, opening up the SpaceX contract will make sure the US returns to the moon before China. He also anticipates Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be involved in the new competition.

NASA’s timeline for the earliest moon mission, known as Artemis II, is next year, and a space lunar landing with SpaceX’s Starship is slated for 2027, but there are doubts the company will have its vehicle ready in time.

SpaceX has problems it needs to solve

NASA’s moon program is an ambitious and complicated endeavor that will rely on a suite of novel rockets and spacecraft that will have to work in tandem to get astronauts to and from the lunar surface safely. 

One of the biggest issues SpaceX needs to address revolves around Starship’s need to be refueled while in orbit. For now, the refueling issue flies under the radar because it’s still far away in the development timeline, and the company has bigger fish to fry right now, like making sure the vehicle works. 

However, the refueling aspect can not be overlooked, as SpaceX has yet to reveal that it has a technology that can pull that off.

Another issue is Starship’s current lackluster performance. In August, Musk on X revealed that the current version of Starship can only carry about 35 tons of cargo into orbit, which is a far cry from the 100 to 150 tons that is being expected and less than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

However, Musk has been promising a Starship that can carry over 100 tons for years, and he has never been one to give up. He has demonstrated this repeatedly and is likely to pull it off again; at least that is what the investors are saying. 

Recall that the Falcon 9 rocket originally had similar issues with its lift capability, which was smaller than it is today, but the company was able to increase it over time, partially by stretching the rocket. 

Musk is certainly convinced that Starship will be able to reach 100 metric tons with the next version.

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