The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has suspended the contract with the American company Space X Elon Musk for the development and creation of a lunar lander. This was announced by the official representative of NASA Monica Witt, reports TASS.
Fighting for the contract, in addition to Space X, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics protested the decision on the victory of Elon Musk's company in the United States General Administration. The document involves the creation of a module for landing astronauts on the surface of a natural satellite of the Earth within the framework of the Artemis program. NASA has informed Space X that it will suspend the $ 2.9 billion contract until “GAO resolves all remaining litigation related to this purchase,” Whitt said.
Earlier in April, it was reported that Elon Musk's SpaceX would send astronauts to the moon. The organization has won a related contract from NASA. The competition also included Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, along with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, and Dynetics. According to the contract, Space X will have to deliver four astronauts on the Orion spacecraft to the lunar station. After that, two of them will be sent to the moon by the Starship, owned by the Musk company.
In May 2020, NASA presented the international Artemis Accords, which describes the international rules for the exploration of the Moon and the extraction of minerals on its territory. So, for example, according to ten new principles specified in the agreement, the concept of “safe zones” around future lunar bases is now being introduced. In addition, NASA offers a public exchange of scientific data obtained, as well as registration of spacecraft on the Moon.
