SpaceX May Miss First Crewed Moon Landing as NASA Reopens Artemis Bid

NASA reopened its Artemis 3 lunar lander contract after SpaceX’s Starship fell behind schedule.

Artist’s rendering shows SpaceX’s Starship on the lunar surface during a NASA Artemis mission

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According to NASA authorities, SpaceX may fail to achieve the first crewed landing on the Moon in over 50 years. On October 20, SpaceX was announced as the re-opening of their Artemis 3 lander contract worth 2.9 billion dollars by the acting Administrator, Sean Duffy, due to the company falling behind schedule. He claims that he loves SpaceX, but is disappointed that the launch of its Starship rocket keeps being postponed, and wants his administration to have the next Moon landing.

Delay of the starship: Falling behind the Artemis schedule

According to Space.com, the Starship megarocket of SpaceX is an upgraded upper stage (modified to accommodate NASA) as the Artemis 3 lunar lander, which has already completed 11 uncrewed test flights, including 2 successful high-altitude flights in 2025.

However, the schedule has been postponed due to constant development delays. The Artemis 3 crewed flight was originally planned to fly in 2024, then became 2025 and then 2026, but might now move to 2028. NASA indicates that slippage in Starship is not acceptable and, as such, the agency is finding alternatives.

New competitors come into play

According to NASA, the Artemis 3 lunar-lander contract has been made open to other bidders. By the end of the 2020s, the agency is driven to land at the south pole of the Moon (where there is desirable ice).

The primary competitor is Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos, which already has a 3.4 billion Artemis lander deal of 2023. According to Duffy, NASA will select those who are capable of getting us there first. The space race makes the urgency worse as China hopes to have astronauts on the ground by 2030.

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