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NASA chief says US must return to moon before China lands

there

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Artemis 2 on track, may launch earlier than planned

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NASA chief Duffy suggests Blue Origin, others may join

bidding

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) -

NASA's top official on Monday said the U.S. space agency was

opening up the contract for its Artemis 3 astronaut moon landing

to compete against billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, the mission's

current contractor, which was running behind schedule.

"I'm in the process of opening that contract up. I think

we'll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others,"

NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who also serves as U.S.

Transportation Secretary, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends"

program.

Blue Origin is a SpaceX rival founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos,

former president and CEO of Amazon.com.

"We're going to have a space race in regard to American

companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the

moon first."

Since 2021, SpaceX has had a NASA contract, now worth $4.4

billion, to land humans on the moon by 2027 using its

Starship rocket

. The increasingly delayed target date is mostly aimed at

beating China's 2030 moon landing goal. The mission would be the

first human lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Blue Origin, with its Blue Moon lander,

has a similar lunar landing contract

awarded by NASA in 2023 but for later Artemis missions. The

company had fought for years for that contract, pushing NASA and

lawmakers to select a second lander for redundancy.

Duffy's remarks on Monday suggest Blue Origin could soon

compete to snatch the Artemis 3 mission from SpaceX, whose

delayed Starship has raised concerns among agency officials in

recent months.

NASA did not immediately return requests for comment and

specifics on Duffy's remarks.

NASA's multibillion-dollar Artemis program is a series of

missions involving multiple contractors aimed at returning

humans to the moon for a long-term presence there. Artemis 3 has

been planned for 2027 with SpaceX's Starship.

But Duffy said Musk's SpaceX was not on schedule and could put

the U.S. behind its rival, with President Donald Trump wanting

to see the mission take place before his White House term ends

in January 2029.

"They're behind schedule, and so the president wants to make

sure we beat the Chinese," Duffy told Fox.

Artemis 2, a 10-day flight around the moon and back

involving systems built by Boeing ( BA ), Northrop Grumman ( NOC )

and Lockheed Martin ( LMT ), is on track for April and

could get moved up to February, he added.

Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp reportedly spoke with Trump

over the summer when the Republican president was feuding with

Musk, who backed Trump in the 2024 election and went on to lead

the broad effort to cut the federal government known as DOGE.

Representatives for SpaceX and Blue Origin could not immediately

be reached for comment.