NASA selects SpaceX’s Starship because the lander to take astronauts to the moon
Shocking choice: Final 12 months, NASA awarded three totally different teams contracts to additional develop their very own proposals for lunar landers: $135 million to SpaceX, $253 million to protection firm Dynetics (which was working with Sierra Nevada Company), and $579 million to a four-company staff led by Blue Origin (working with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper).
SpaceX didn’t simply obtain the least sum of money—its proposal additionally earned the worst technical and administration scores. NASA’s affiliate administrator (now appearing administrator) Steve Jurczyk wrote (pdf) that Starship’s propulsion system was “notably complicated and comprised of likewise complicated particular
