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In an announcement made yesterday, March 23, new broad competition was announced for companies interested in participating in the NASA Program for new moon landings, the Artemis Program, without the participation of SpaceX. The news comes almost a year after the choice of Elon Musk's company as a partner company in the American agency's new mission for human landings on the moon. 6b2e6i
Controversies with the choice of SpaceX 5s2m2b
After controversy with SpaceX, for the Artemis Program, the process was biased in favor of the competitor. In addition to Blue Origin, SpaceX also beat Boeing in the competition for the contract with NASA, guaranteeing an initially announced budget of US$ 2.9 billion, about R$ 14 billion at the current price. This mission aims to take the first woman and first person of color to land on the Moon and bring it back to planet Earth by 2025.
The dispute went to trial in the United States Federal Court because Bezos published an open letter offering a lunar module and self-financing an exploratory mission to NASA cutting $2 billion in costs, but it didn't work to take the competitor's place, causing the formal complaint to evolve into a lawsuit, with allegations that the process was “improper and illegal”, but was rejected by the judge in charge of the case.
The decision in favor of NASA was due to the budget received by the US government agency, which only allowed the hiring of one company and corresponded to only 25% of the amount requested from Congress of US$ 3,4 billion, around R$ 16,42 billion at the current dollar exchange rate. The original plans for the Program were to hire two of the three finalists: the Bezos e Musk and Dynetics, a company with contracts with NASA itself.
Artemis program opens competition 344r3s
With the new announcement, the and former NASA astronaut, Bill nelson, reinforces its position from the period of the Blue Origin process that NASA wants to invest in the competition between commercial companies and also its desire to have two companies providing transport services to the Moon and back to Earth.
Bill Nelson also said that he always promised competition between companies and is now able to fulfill this promise, which, according to him, benefits everyone: the American people, NASA and companies in the sector, which will have a new opportunity to compete in a new bid, this time without the participation of SpaceX.
The announcement of new competition for companies takes place one week before the announcement of the budget for the 2023 fiscal year of President Joe Biden, with the intention that Congress and the current istration will chancelem a sufficient amount to fund this venture, something expected by Bill Nelson.
NASA's new timeline 694s2s
Another important point of NASA's announcement was a major expansion of its program, with changes to the contract with SpaceX. Initially, the company would be responsible for an unmanned landing on the Moon as a test demonstration mission and a second mission, this one manned, to take place in the mid-2020s, the first manned mission to the Moon since the Apollo mission. Under its new contract, the company will also make a second moon landing, scheduled for the end of the decade.
Selection of the second company is expected to begin at the end of March, with the requirements for bidding being made public, and then, by the end of the fall, the deadline for submission of proposals will be announced to all interested US companies. This second contract is being called Sustaining Lunar Development (Sustaining Lunar Development).
With the competitor chosen, NASA's schedule is that the launch and landing of this company's crew take place between 2026 and 2027, when the project is mature enough to launch. With two companies under contract and investing in cutting-edge technology, NASA believes it will pave the way for a future with recurring shuttle services for astronauts on the Moon.
The announcement ends with the agency talking about this being an important part of its deep space exploration plans, as well as the spacecraft. Gateway etc. The goal of all these endeavors is to develop the technology needed for the next step for NASA: human exploration on Mars.
See also:
NASA will launch Space Station to watery grave in 2030.
Pig iron: NASA, TechCrunch e The Verge.
