Amazing selection: Last year, NASA awarded three different teams to advance their replacement ideas for the month: $ 135 million in SpaceX, $ 253 million in defense company Dynetics (which works with Sierra Nevada Corporation), and $ 579 million to a four-company team led by The Origin of Blue (working with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper).
SpaceX not only received a small amount of money – the request also benefited the worst-case scenario and management. NASA ally (now chief of staff) Steve Jurczyk wrote (pdf) The Starship pilot machine was “extremely complex and had the same components that had not yet been designed, tested, and validated with limited limitations in order to minimize.” Uncertainty grew because of the well-known nature of SpaceX’s recent meetings.
What changed: Since then, SpaceX has gone through several different pilot tests for several Starship test pilots, including a 10-mile flight up and a safe landing in March. (It also exploded several times.) According to the Washington Post, documents show that NASA was pleased with Starship’s ability to carry large quantities to the moon (up to 100 tons), not to mention its $ 2.9 billion contract, which was much lower than its competitors’.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, director of NASA’s lunar observatory, says: “The process of setting up these people is very well known.” We hope NASA is affiliated with SpaceX. “
This means: For competitors with SpaceX, it’s a bit of a pain – especially for Blue Origin. The company, founded by Jeff Bezos, unveiled its Blue Moon lander concept in 2019 and has campaigned for NASA to decide future monthly services. Blue Moon was the most successful of the three minds when NASA released their first contract.
For SpaceX, it is a major vote in Starship as the most important technical tool for the next generation of space explorer. It comes less than a year after the Crew Dragon company was confirmed the only American spacecraft capable of transporting NASA astrologers into space. And it seems to confirm that SpaceX is now a major secret partner at NASA, infiltrating old companies like Northrop Grumman and chasing new ones like Blue Origin beyond. However, there is one major drawback: Starship has to launch using a Super Heavy rocket-design that SpaceX has not yet launched.
For NASA, the main implication is that SpaceX vehicles will continue to play a major role in Artemis, a lunar exploration program known to be Apollo’s successor. Former President Donald Trump’s order to NASA that Restoration of lunar travelers by 2024 has not happened, but the selection of one man-made theory suggests that NASA will probably not miss that final moment. The first members of Artemis will use Orion, and The delayed Space Launch System rocket is expected to be ready soon.
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