Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
SpaceX won the contract NASA worth US $ 2.89 billion to build spaceship. This plane will land astronaut on the moon for the first time in five decades.
The aircraft, named Starship, is also a manifestation of Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, to land humans on Mars.
So far, Starship’s entire prototype flight has ended in explosions. However, the company claims to be able to build a new test vehicle quickly.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, Manager of NASA’s Human Landing Systems or HLS program, said NASA will continue to provide close oversight as SpaceX continues its development.
SpaceX will also be required to carry out a demonstration mission to land an unmanned Starship on the moon before landing an astronaut.
“(Also) ensure that this system will be safe for our astronauts,” Watson-Morgan said as quoted by CNN.com, Sunday (18/4).
Last year NASA announced three separate contracts for lunar development on SpaceX and Blue Origin ‘National Team.
The hope is that the two companies will work to build operational vehicles so that they produce competitive results in terms of price and technology.
Watson-Morgan said NASA has supported each partner, providing analysis to support the design, expert staff, including testing during the development phase.
The announcement of the SpaceX contract is a blow to Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, the ‘National Team’ is known to have proposed collaborating with big companies such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to design and build a lunar lander.
However, it was SpaceX who won the contract with an offer to use the spacecraft that the company had developed in-house in South Texas.
(the / bir)
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