Chief designer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has been awarded the contract worth of $2.89bn by National Aeronautic and Space Administration on Friday 16, 2021 to move its next astronauts to the moon.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation in conjunction with NASA next mission into the moon, will launch three men and a woman, the first woman to fly to the moon.
NASA has launched this flight under its Artemis progrmamme.
The Space rocket is set to launch four astronauts using the Orion spacecraft in their multi-day journey to the space, as reported by NNASA. Two of the four will make a detour to the SpaceX Human Landing System to mark the first part of the journey on the moon’s surface of the moon.
NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate, Kathy Lueders, said, “With this award, NASA and our partners will complete the first crewed demonstration mission to the surface of the moon in the 21st century, as the agency takes a step forward for woman’s equality and long-term deep space exploration.
“This is an exciting time for NASA, especially the Artemis team,” said the Programme Manager for HLS at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight centre in Huntsville, Lisa Watson-Morgan. “During the Apollo programme, we proved that it is possible to do the seemingly impossible: land humans on the moon, by taking a collaborative approach in working with industry while leveraging NASA’s proven technical expertise and capabilities.”
SpaceX got this contract after working with NASA, especially during testing and performance.
