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Elon Musk's SpaceX has won a $2.9 billion contract to develop the company's Starship rocket as a lunar lander to carry astronauts on Artemis moon missions, NASA announced Friday.
In selecting only SpaceX for the lunar program, NASA ended consideration of Musk's rival, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space company, and a third proposal by Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics.
The award cements SpaceX's role as the dominant company in a new era of space exploration. The decision also clarifies how NASA plans to accomplish new lunar missions -- using the shiny stainless steel Starship as a spacecraft and lander rolled into one reusable vehicle.
NASA had planned to send people to the moon by 2024, but agency officials acknowledged that timeline wasn't possible because Congress hadn't provided adequate funding for the human lander system.
Starship, at 160 feet high, is designed to be capable of launching capsules. For deep space missions, however, it would be stacked on an even larger booster -- the Super Heavy.
SpaceX has flown Starship prototypes four times at the company's spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas, about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. But all four flights were followed by explosions either upon landing, just after landing or just before landing.
NASA had awarded almost $1 billion to all three space companies to develop ideas for the lander, and the space agency had said it may choose two of the proposals.
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