Copyright jalopnik
In multiple television appearances this week, Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy confirmed that he would be re-opening the contract to build a crewed Moon lander for the Artemis missions. That's a blow for SpaceX, which secured the contract back in 2021 to use its still-in-development Starship for the job. The trouble is, as Duffy notes, Starship is behind schedule, which is a polite way of saying it has blown up a lot of times. In fairness, Starship is a massively ambitious endeavor, which takes a lot of time and failed prototypes. When it does work, it's a pretty remarkable, reusable rocket. But time is something NASA doesn't have. Duffy told CNBC that America is in a race to the Moon with China, so to win it, the Artemis program has got to get moving faster. The Artemis III mission, which aims to return American boots to the lunar surface, is scheduled for a 2027 launch. Starship currently seems unlikely to meet that timeframe. Even beyond China, Duffy noted another race we're in: one with U.S. President Donald Trump. "The president and I want to get to the Moon in this president's term," he told CNBC. So, that's a priority, apparently. To meet it, NASA can't rely on SpaceX's timeline anymore. Duffy will therefore let other companies compete for the contract instead; SpaceX can also bid, though it will have to prove that something is changing for the faster. There's just one small problem — how do you open a federal contract during a government shutdown?
