Oct. 20 (UPI) — NASA’s acting administrator accused SpaceX on Monday of falling “behind” and said he plans to reopen contracts to get U.S. astronauts “back to the moon in 2028.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was named acting NASA administrator in July, told several news outlets the space agency was not satisfied with Starship’s development toward the upcoming Artemis 3 mission.
“SpaceX had the contract for Artemis 3,” Duffy told CNBC. “The problem is they’re behind. They push their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China. The president and I want to get to the moon in this president’s term.”
“So, I’m going to open up the contract,” Duffy continued. “I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and again, whatever one can get us there first, to the moon, we’re going to take.”
SpaceX, which has launched nearly 8,600 Starlink satellites into orbit, won the $2.9 billion contract in April 2021. On Monday, SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk responded in a post on his social platform X.
“Blue Origin has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the moon,” Musk wrote, adding “useful payload” in a subsequent post.
Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has a separate contract to develop its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander for missions, starting with Artemis 5.
Duffy said NASA wants to get “back to the moon in 2028,” after previously saying the Artemis 3 moon mission would launch in 2027. The NASA chief said Artemis 2, which will launch four people around the moon, remains on track for early next year.
SpaceX has tested its Starship rocket eleven times, with the most recent launch last week. For the second time, the Starship spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean. While six test flights have been deemed successful, five others have failed, including an explosion on the launchpad in June and a vehicle breaking apart during re-entry in May.
While Duffy criticized SpaceX for its delays, he called SpaceX “an amazing company” on Fox News, adding they “do remarkable things, but they’re behind schedule.”
“We’re going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the moon first,” Duffy announced.
“SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry,” Musk responded. “Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words.”