“NASA selects Elon Musk space company for a manned mission to the moon” | Science

The US Space Agency awards the contract exclusively to SpaceX. And this is how the company outperforms Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ game. The Amazon founder wanted to win the contract with aerospace and defense companies Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper.

Musk, who is also the CEO of auto maker Tesla, founded SpaceX with the ultimate goal of getting humans to fly to Mars. In recent years, the company has caused quite a stir by preparing tons of test missions for missiles and spacecraft. This quickly increased enthusiasm for space travel.

NASA last sent astronauts to the moon in 1972. That year, the US Apollo space travel program ended. For Caliph Artemis, all hope now rests on the spacecraft’s shoulders. This SpaceX rocket can be used again after launch and can bring large groups of people to the moon, Mars and ultimately other planets.

So far, unmanned test flights have not been successful with the Starship. On the landing attempts, the spacecraft ended up in a large fireball. Most recently, the US FAA announced a safety investigation.