Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos compete to help NASA return humans to the moon

<p>NASA announced it has given Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX along with Dynetics the nod to create the next human landing system as part of NASA's Artemis program that will return Americans to the lunar surface by 2024.</p><p>The private spaceflight companies, owned by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, will develop competing systems in parallel, alongside a third company called Dynetics, but NASA will eventually choose one.</p><p>Under the Artemis program—named for the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology—NASA plans to return the next man and the first woman to the moon.</p><p>“With these contract awards, America is moving forward with the final step needed to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement Thursday. “This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have companies on contract to do the work for the Artemis program.”</p><p>Blue Origin will develop the Integrated Lander Vehicle, a three-stage lander.</p><p>Dynetics will develop the Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS), described as "a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities." It too will launch on ULA's launch system.</p><p>SpaceX is currently developing the Starship, which NASA described as "a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket."</p><p>NASA has awarded the three companies 10-month contracts that are worth a combined $967M, with payments subject to the companies reaching specific development milestones.</p><p>On December 11, 2017, Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, making lunar exploration an official policy.</p>