Space firms SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics were selected by NASA on Thursday to build lunar landing systems that will take astronauts to the moon by 2024.
This is part of the space agency's Moon-Mars campaign. This program is eyeing for a long-term presence of the astronauts on the moon, even greater than the Apollo program, which will eventually pave the path for a manned mission to Mars.
The premier space agency is banking heavily on private companies to make their ambitions come to fruition.
Out of three companies selected for the endeavor, the firms of technocrats like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are in the fray. The three companies will be getting 967 million from NASA, however, the amount received by each company is still unknown.
"I think we`ve got the potential for an incredibly exciting future in space with a base on the moon, and ultimately sending people and having a self-sustaining city on Mars," Elon Musk, CEO of electric car firm Tesla.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA`s human landing system program manager told the media that picking three firms for the project allows the agency to have the option of redundancy in case one company falls behind in the development process.
Blue Origin, Bezos's company, last year, revealed its design for a lunar lander called Blue Moon. It plans to launch a landing system with its own heavy-lift rocket, New Glenn. Meanwhile, SpaceX, Elon Musk's company is on the verge of launching its manned mission for NASA next month. It will develop its Starship landing system to send a crew and up to 100 pounds of cargo to the moon.
Boeing Co, the aerospace company also submitted its concept for a lunar lander last year but it was not selected.
