SpaceX Wins Contract to Design NASA Moon Lander

Depending on how good your memory is, or your interest in space travel, I suppose, you may recall that in May 2020, NASA officially awarded contracts to both SpaceX and Amazon’s ‘Blue Origin’ to design the lunar lander that, as the name might have suggested, would take humans back to the surface of the Moon and, you know, allow us to have a walkabout on it again!

With NASA planning to achieve this before the end of the decade, there was clearly a lot at stake here, and particularly in terms of money for the company who produced the winning ‘design’. Following a report via Engadget, however, it would appear that we officially have our answer, and the craft that takes us back to the Moon’s surface will be a SpaceX design!

SpaceX Wins Lunar Lander Contract

Although no specific news regarding the design has yet been announced, I must admit to being a little surprised at this news. Not because I don’t think that SpaceX isn’t capable of putting together an amazing craft, but because the initial reports from last May suggested that NASA, in awarding funds for design contracts, provided Amazon’s ‘Blue Origin’ with a significantly higher sum of money. If anything, given that SpaceX received about a quarter of what Amazon did (if the report was accurate), it led me to believe that between the two, SpaceX was largely considered the backup option.

So, with this development, one can only make one of two conclusions. Either ‘Blue Origin’ failed to produce a full design layout within the prescribed time span or, despite getting less money for it, SpaceX’s concept was vastly better!

When Will We Walk on the Moon?

Officially speaking, NASA is supposedly targeting to put human beings back on the surface of the Moon before the end of 2024. And just in case that hasn’t sunk in for you (or you think I mistyped that number), they intend for this to happen within the next 4-years! – Put simply, that isn’t a lot of time at all considering the scope of what the overall plan is.

Given that it’s been over 50-years since we last stepped on it, however, I’m clearly more than supportive of this goal. And perhaps a little more now that SpaceX is going to be given a greater hand in it!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!