There has been a new Space Race over the last few years, it is not secret. The race is not a competition between federal space agencies but has more participants and is more complex.
There are many commercial space companies competing for lucrative contracts and positions, in addition to state competitors. Space Race 2.0 is possible when there are a number of public-private partnerships.
Particularly, the controversy surrounding the award of the Artemis contract to SpaceX for the Human Landing System has been intense since then. Blue Origin and Dynetics, SpaceX's rivals, filed legal challenges and a messy public relations campaign.
NASA has now lifted the stop-work order, and SpaceX began payments. SpaceX recently indicated that their HLS concept might be ready for use before the 2024 deadline.
NASA selected SpaceX and Blue Origin to create the HLS to transport the Artemis III astronauts to the moon as part of NextSTEP 2 Appendix H. NASA initially hoped to award contracts only to one of these companies, but SpaceX won the contract due to time and budget constraints.
Blue Origin and Dynetics responded by filing a protest with Government Accountability Office (GAO).
NASA has begun @SpaceX lunar landing payment. SpaceX will be working quickly, which I trust. @elonmusk Do you think the Lunar Starship will be ready to land humans on Earth in 2024, despite delays? https://t.co/jWIl6Hhw20 Everything Artemis (@artemis360_moon) August 15, 2021
The GAO denied the protests on July 30th and lifted the stop-work order that they had placed until they could review them. According to Michael Sheetz, CNBC's space reporter, NASA paid the first HLS contract payment that day.
Sheetz, based on documents uploaded by USASpending.gov, reported that NASA had awarded US$300 Million out of an amount of US$439.6 millions (the contract total is over US$3 Billion).
Twitter user Everything Artemis (@artemis360_moon), which tracks news about the Artemis Program, responded to Elon Musk.
"NASA has begun its @SpaceX lunar landing payments. SpaceX will hopefully work quickly, and I believe that they will. @elonmusk Do you think the Lunar Starship will be ready to land humans on Earth in 2024, despite delays? They tweeted. Elon replied, "Probably sooner."
The modified Starship Starship concept, SpaceX HLS, is being developed at SpaceX's launch site near Boca Chica.
According to the latest mockup (shown below), the HLS Starship will be able to carry a greater payload than other vessels, since it won't require heat shields, flaps or large gas thruster packs (all necessary for atmospheric reentry).
The landing legs are also wider, which future Starships might eliminate entirely since SpaceX is currently building the "Mechazilla” launch tower. However, there are concerns about possible delays and meeting the 2024 deadline beyond the four months lost because of the GAO's cease order.
There are also concerns about the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units (xEMU), spacesuits that were used to explore extravehicular mobility units (xEMU), leading to fears they might not be available in time.
At SpaceX's South Texas Launch Facility, it is dusk. (SpaceX).
Musk also offered SpaceX his assistance, claiming they could have the other critical mission element ready earlier.
There have been many delays in the Space Launch System (SLS), as well as with the Orion capsule, that have been widely reported. It has been suggested that NASA could outsource the task of sending back the Artemis astronauts using the Starship or Super Heavy.
NASA continues to try to return to the Moon by 2024, as directed by the previous administration. They had to speed up everything and reprioritize some missions elements. SpaceX was the overwhelming contractor to take over.
To see it through, the ESA and other agencies in space are partnered with them. Russia and China are also partnering to launch a rival lunar exploration and settlement program.
Contractors are vying for their share of the logo on the equipment that will return astronauts to the Moon for first time since the Apollo Era. It's complicated, as I said!
Universe Today originally published this article. You can read the original article.
