Nasa is looking for another company for a second crewed lander.
The American space agency is searching for another supplier to work alongside SpaceX and applications need to be in by November 15 for a May 2023 announcement.
According to SpaceNews, to get their hands on the contract, developers must show their capacity to get a ship to the Earth’s satellite, such as a 6.25-day trip by two astronauts, a 33-day mission for four and a brief trip to regions other than the South Pole on the moon.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, Nasa’s Human Landing System programme manager said: “Work done under this solicitation, in addition to current lander development and studies taking place, will help build the foundation for long-term deep space exploration. Partnering with American companies to do that work now allows us to leverage Nasa's knowledge and expertise to encourage technological innovations for a sustained presence at the moon.”
Nasa has a $2.8 billion contract with the space exploration firm founded by billionaire Elon Musk, 50, that includes unmanned and manned lunar landing vessels for the Artemis III mission, which is intending to send the first woman and first person of colour to the moon after 2025.
The SpaceX-created Space Launch System is reportedly going to carry four crew members on the Orion spacecraft.
The government-funded agency won a legal battle against Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, which had alleged that they had behaved improperly by side-stepping safety regulations during the bidding period, before awarding SpaceX the contract.
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