MUSK BEATS BEZOS, WINS $2.9B NASA LUNAR LANDER DEAL

NASA awarded billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the moon as early as 2024, the agency said on Friday, picking it over Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics Inc., Raphael Satterl, Hyunjoo Jin ands Munsif Vengattil reported for Reuters.

Bezos and Musk - the world's first and third richest people respectively, according to Forbes - were competing to lead humankind's return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Musk's SpaceX bid alone while Amazon.com founder Bezos's Blue Origin partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Draper. Dynetics is a unit of Leidos Holdings Inc.

"NASA Rules!!" Musk wrote on Twitter after the announcement.

The US space agency awarded the contract for the first commercial human lander, part of its Artemis program. NASA said the lander will carry two American astronauts to the lunar surface.

"We should accomplish the next landing as soon as possible," Steve Jurczyk, NASA's acting administrator, said during the video conference announcement. "If they hit their milestones, we have a shot at 2024," Jurczyk added.

NASA said SpaceX's Starship includes a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks and that its architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in space.

NASA's decision was a setback for Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast who is now more focused on his space venture after having announced in February he would step down as Amazon CEO. The contract was seen by Bezos and other executives as vital to Blue Origin establishing itself as a desired partner for NASA, and also putting the venture on the road to turning a profit.

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