Nasa chief fuels SpaceX-Blue Origin rivalry as US eyes return to moon

By Loren Grush and Ed Ludlow

 

Nasa’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, said the agency will pick whichever company builds its moon lander the fastest — whether that be Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — to put humans on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. 

Isaacman’s comments in a Bloomberg TV interview on Thursday — his first day on the job — underscore the urgency with which the fintech executive and SpaceX astronaut will drive the agency to beat China to the moon and establish a permanent US presence there.

 

“I don’t think it was lost on either vendor that whichever lander was available first to ensure that America achieves its strategic objectives on the moon is the one we were going to go with,” Isaacman said shortly after meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  

 

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin hold contracts with Nasa to build lunar landers for the agency’s Artemis program. SpaceX holds more than $4 billion worth of contracts with Nasa to carry astronauts to the moon with its mammoth Starship spacecraft, and is currently slated to be the first to land humans there. 

But in October, Nasa’s then-acting administrator Sean Duffy announced plans to “open up” SpaceX’s lunar lander contract to competition, citing frustration over the company’s timeline delays. 

 

SpaceX’s Starship rocket has faced numerous technical challenges and setbacks over the last year, with critics expressing concern that the company’s lengthy development will lead to China landing astronauts on the moon before Nasa before the decade is out. 

 

Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 Payments Inc., assumes the role of Nasa administrator as the agency is facing headcount reductions and proposed budget cuts, among other challenges. Isaacman argued that the budgets that have been proposed by both the president and Congress would be maximized.

 

“I think whether it’s $20 billion or $25 billion a year, is a very meaningful budget,” Isaacman said.  

 

Isaacman also commended Trump’s recent executive order, which reaffirms Nasa’s Artemis moon program and calls on the agency to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028, as well as establish a base there by 2030.

 

“I think this executive order takes things to a whole other scale,” Isaacman told Bloomberg. “We’re not just going back to the moon for the footsteps and planting the flag. We are establishing the infrastructure to realize the scientific, economic and national security benefits.”