 "Is Nasa dropping SpaceX from its moon mission? Chief fumes over delays amid ‘race with China’")
Nasa may sever its deal with SpaceX to take astronauts to the moon as Elon Musk-owned company keeps delaying missions amid America’s space race with China.
Sean Duffy, Nasa’s acting chief, has said that SpaceX, which has a $2.9 billion contract to provide the lunar lander, is thwarting Washington’s efforts to take humans to the moon before China beats it.
“They push their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China. So, I’m going to open up the contract. I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX," Duffy told CNBC.
A decision by NASA to modify or terminate its contract with SpaceX would mark a major shift from the course the agency set in 2021. That year, NASA selected SpaceX’s Starship, still in the early stages of development and, as of 2025, having experienced three failed flights and a few successful suborbital tests, to act as the lunar lander for the landmark Artemis III mission to the Moon.
Duffy’s comments follow months of mounting pressure within NASA to speed up its Artemis lunar program and push SpaceX to make greater progress on its Starship lunar lander, while China progresses toward its own goal of sending humans to the moon by 2030.
“They do remarkable things, but they’re behind schedule,” Duffy said of SpaceX’s lunar lander work, adding President Donald Trump wants to see the mission take place before his White House term ends in January 2029.
While Musk has not officially spoken on the matter, he commented on an X user’s post, saying, “SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsCurrently, Nasa has signed up Amazon’s Blue Origin to develop another lander called Blue Moon, apart from SpaceX. The company had protested Nasa’s initial decision to only pick SpaceX in 2021 and fought for years to convince the agency and lawmakers to select another proposal as a redundancy.
With inputs from agencies
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