In April 2021 Musk\u2019s company, SpaceX, was awarded the contract<\/a> to develop the landing vehicle for NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission \u2013 the first return to the lunar surface by Americans since Apollo 17 in 1972. The lander was to be based on the innovative Starship vehicle, already under development at the time at the company\u2019s base in south Texas.<\/p>\n SpaceX has carried out 11 test flights of Starship since April 2023. While launches in August<\/a> and October 2025<\/a> were successful, the previous<\/a> three<\/a> flights<\/a> ended in failure for the upper stage, or \u201cship\u201d \u2013 which is the part intended to carry astronauts.<\/p>\n With China mounting a formidable bid for supremacy on the Moon, pressure was growing<\/a> on SpaceX to make greater progress (though milestones are to some extent subjective). On October 20, Sean Duffy announced that he was opening up<\/a> SpaceX\u2019s US$4.4 billion contract to rival companies, citing delays with Starship. Duffy, who is also the US transportation secretary, has been NASA\u2019s acting head since July.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s company must still demonstrate consistent launch safety. It also has to test critical technologies, such as refuelling Starship in orbit<\/a>, before the planned 2027 date for Artemis III. \u201cThey (SpaceX) do remarkable things, but they\u2019re behind schedule,\u201d Duffy claimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n China plans to land its astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and key figures in the US space community have warned<\/a> that America may lose the race.<\/p>\n In October 2025, Jim Bridenstine, who led NASA under the first Trump administration, told a US Senate hearing<\/a>: \u201cUnless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China\u2019s projected timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that NASA landed crews on the lunar surface six times in the 1960s and 70s, getting there now might seem as if it should be straightforward. Unfortunately, the rockets and capsules used for the Apollo program are no longer in service and would be extremely difficult to reproduce today. With advanced technology, however, we should be able to produce more efficient missions capable of launching heavier payloads.<\/p>\n Of course the big difference between now and the Apollo era is funding. At its peak<\/a> (between 1965 and 1966) NASA was being given<\/a> 4.5% of all US spending annually. This dropped consistently over subsequent decades and, in 2024, sat at around 0.4%. This factor of ten less means fewer staff, reduced innovation and more reliance on international collaborations.<\/p>\n NASA has an additional disadvantage that many other spacefaring nations do not. The president helps determine the goals of the agency. With the office changing hands (and potentially party) every four to eight years, a singular vision can be difficult to establish. It can also make the agency slower to react to changing geopolitics.<\/p>\n New entrants?<\/p>\n With China\u2019s planned Moon launch fast approaching, Duffy\u2019s call for new landers might appear to be cutting it fine. One likely contender may be able to modify an existing vehicle rather than starting from scratch. Jeff Bezos\u2019s company, Blue Origin, is planning an uncrewed launch of its Mark 1 lander to the lunar surface in early 2026. The vehicle was designed to transport cargo, not people. But a report in Ars Technica<\/a> suggests Blue Origin is looking to redesign the spacecraft so that it can carry crew.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s plan reportedly involves \u201cmultiple\u201d Mark 1 vehicles to ferry crew to the Moon\u2019s surface and then return to lunar orbit. Duffy has already told Fox News<\/a> that he expects Blue Origin to \u201cget involved.\u201d Critically, the proposal from Bezos\u2019s company would skip the technical challenge of refuelling in orbit, which is required of Starship (though it\u2019s unclear at this stage how Blue Origin would avoid this).<\/p>\n At the same time, aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has also been putting together<\/a> a group including a dozen other unnamed industry players that would build a lunar lander from existing hardware. Lockheed\u2019s vision for the Artemis III lander would take some design cues from the Apollo-era lunar module.<\/p>\n The day after Duffy\u2019s lunar contract announcement, Musk launched an online tirade at NASA\u2019s acting chief. On X, Musk posted: \u201cShould someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America\u2019s space program?\u201d Duffy is a former member of Congress and world champion lumberjack speed climber. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in marketing and a law degree.<\/p>\n The SpaceX boss\u2019s feud with Duffy may extend beyond the potential loss of the lander contract. The Wall Street Journal recently reported<\/a> on a \u201cpower struggle\u201d over who will permanently lead NASA under the second Trump administration. The SpaceX boss has long backed fellow billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to be in charge of the space agency.<\/p>\n Isaacman was previously nominated by Trump to lead NASA, but his nomination was later withdrawn. The Wall Street Journal report says Isaacman is still in contention to lead the agency. Ars Technica<\/a>, meanwhile, has reported that Duffy wants to remain in charge.<\/p>\n Whoever is selected will help shape the agency\u2019s priorities at a critical time. Opening up the Artemis III lander contract could lead to further infighting between NASA and industry, endangering \u2013 rather than accelerating \u2013 the schedule. It will also cost money that is badly needed in other parts of the agency, such as its science division. This could, for example, be spent hiring researchers to analyse data from NASA\u2019s existing missions.<\/p>\n Defending his company\u2019s track record on X, Elon Musk posted<\/a>: \u201cSpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry.\u201d He added: \u201cStarship will end up doing the whole Moon mission, mark my words.\u201d<\/p>\n As Sean Duffy posted in response<\/a>: \u201cLove the passion. The race to the Moon is ON.\u201d<\/p>\n Ian Whittaker<\/a> is a senior lecturer in physics at Nottingham Trent University<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and China are locked in a contest to be the first country to send humans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4536,350,85,46,47120,3890,3442,141,5690,145,4688,6445,13618],"class_list":{"0":"post-114917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-blue-origin","9":"tag-elon-musk","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-jared-isaacman","13":"tag-jeff-bezos","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-sean-duffy","17":"tag-space","18":"tag-spacex","19":"tag-starship","20":"tag-the-conversation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/file-20251025-56-2j9c6u.jpg\")
An artist\u2019s impression of Starship (left) docked to Nasa\u2019s Orion spacecraft (right) in lunar orbit. SpaceX<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Jared](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/file-20251026-56-ctbcfe.jpg\")
Jared Isaacman had previously been nominated to lead NASA. Photo: NASA \/ Bill Ingalls<\/a><\/p>\n