SpaceX Awarded $2.9 BILLION NASA Lunar Landing Contract

 

  elon musk has been putting a lot of his  eggs into the space exploration basket  it's no secret this latest news is  another step  towards his end goal of commercial space  travel  welcome to fact nominal and we're  bringing you all the eye candy in  spacex awarded nasa lunar landing  contract  all in all spacex were awarded a 2.9  billion dollar government contract by  nasa  to build the lunar lander seen by most  to be a huge advancement in the goal to  colonize space  the unimaginatively named starship is in  an in-house designed  human landing system that spacex has  been pushing for nasa to implement for  their 2024 artemis lunar mission  two sets of human boots will once again  touch down on rocky landscape of the  moon  with starship carrying both the first  female  and first african-american astronauts to  go there  a historic moment it will also be the  first time humans have been back to the  moon in the 21st century  more than a half a century since the  apollo 17 mission  the astronauts themselves will be  launched into space aboard the orion  spacecraft  a joint venture between jet fighter  wizard lockheed martin  sr-71 blackbird fame as well as airbus  defense  and space division once they lock into a  lunar orbit  the dynamic duo crew members will then  transfer to the starship lander craft  and make their way down to the moon  rivals blue origin owned and operated by  fellow multi-billionaire and richest  person in the world jeff bezos  have decided to reign on the parade by  filing a protest over nasa's decision to  award the contract to spacex  like musk bezos is a high-profile figure  who has invested a considerable amount  of time  money and resources into designing his  own brand of reusable spacecraft  he's had a lifelong fascination with the  moon and sees the snub as a huge blow  and an embarrassment for his company and  ambitions  the basis for the challenge is centered  around the fact that nasa employed a  flawed acquisition methodology for the  human landing system  and changed the scope of works and  requirements  right up until the last minute they go  on to say that by awarding only a single  contract  instead of multiple or shared work  across a group of companies  nasa have delayed and possibly even  endangered mankind's return to the moon  by significantly narrowing down the  supply and manufacturing to only what  spacex can provide  nasa have released a statement  acknowledging that they have made a  high-risk selection but are confident  that spacex will fulfill all contractual  obligations and meet the agreed-upon  mission milestone dates  they also added that initially the game  plan was to award dual  contracts to build some competition and  redundancy into the works  however congress did not vote to supply  the additional funding for returning to  the moon  so they were forced to go with what they  thought was the company  with the best tender and coincidentally  the best price  blue origin's bid was six billion  dollars more than twice that of spacex  they claimed that nasa allowed spacex to  update their pricing and payment  schedule so that  it fit nice and snugly within the space  agency's newly revised budget  new origin felt they were given  insufficient time to properly adjust  their pricing  and were therefore left out of the race  for the contract the official protest  actually reads blue origin were  prevented from meaningfully competing  for an award  when the agency's requirements changed  due to its undisclosed perceived  shortfall of funding  for the multi-year program life cycle  nasa have refused to comment on the  protest as its appending litigation  against them to be heard in a court of  law  mosque has chimed in also stating that  despite being half the price  spacex have progressing further in  hardware design than their competitors  and that's the factor that got them over  the line this isn't the first time that  musk and bezos have clashed with plenty  of water under the bridge courtesy of  previously unsuccessful protests by blue  origin but it's actually spacex who gets  the last laugh  the founder had a simple yet powerful  message for the news  retreating can't get it up to orbit  lol ladies and gentlemen we give you the  social media savage himself  elon musk do you think blue origin will  ever  really challenge spacex let us know in  the comments below