The head of NASA recently shook up the agency’s plans to land on the moon
Duffy also mentions the involvement of “perhaps others”. This refers to the third option. In recent weeks, officials at traditional space companies have told Duffy and Transportation Department Chief of Staff Pete Mitchum that they could build a lander similar to the Apollo Lunar Module within 30 months. Sources said that NASA Vice Chancellor Amit Kshetriya supports this government-led approach.
In a statement to Ars on Monday, a Lockheed Martin official confirmed that the company is ready if NASA contacts them.
“Over the course of this year, Lockheed Martin has conducted significant technical and programmatic analyzes of lunar landers that provide NASA with options for a reliable solution to return humans to the moon as quickly as possible,” said Bob Behnken, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of space technology strategy and exploration. “We have been working with a cross-industry team and together we look forward to addressing Secretary Duffy’s request to achieve our nation’s lunar goals.”
NASA cannot easily tear up its existing Human Lander System contracts with SpaceX and Blue Origin because, especially for the former, much of the funding has already been awarded for milestone payments. Instead, Duffy will likely have to find new funding from Congress. And it won’t be cheap. This 2017 NASA analysis estimates that an expensive, proprietary lunar lander would cost $20 billion to $30 billion, or nearly 10 times what NASA awarded SpaceX in 2021.
Responding to Duffy’s comments, SpaceX founder Elon Musk seemed to relish the challenge posed by industry rivals.
“SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry,” Musk said on the X social networking site he owns.
timing
Duffy’s Monday morning televised remarks, while important to the broader space community, also seemed intended for an audience of one person: President Trump.
The president appointed Duffy, who previously ran the Transportation Department, as NASA administrator on an interim basis in July. This comes six weeks after the president, citing political reasons, canceled the nomination of billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead the space agency.
