NASA’s Boss Just Shook Up the Agency’s Plans to Land on the Moon

Duffy noted the involvement of “maybe others”. This implies a third option. In recent weeks, officials from traditional space agencies have been telling Duffy and Transportation Department Chief Pete Meacham that they can build an Apollo Lunar Module-like lander within 30 months. Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, favors this government-led approach, sources said.

In a statement to Ars on Monday, a Lockheed Martin official confirmed that the company was ready if NASA called them.

“Throughout this year, Lockheed Martin has been conducting significant technical and programmatic analysis of human lunar landers that will provide NASA with options for safe solutions to return humans to the Moon as quickly as possible,” said Bob Behnken, vice president of exploration and technology strategy for Lockheed Martin Space. “We are working with a cross-industry team of companies, and together we look forward to addressing Secretary Duffy’s request to meet our nation’s lunar objectives.”

NASA won’t be able to easily tear up its existing human lander system contracts with SpaceX and Blue Origin, because, especially with the former, most of the funding has already been provided for milestone payments. Rather, Duffy will likely have to seek new funding from Congress. And it won’t be cheap. This is a NASA analysis Estimates from 2017 estimated that a cost-plus, single-source lunar lander would cost $20 billion to $30 billion, or about 10 times what NASA awarded SpaceX in 2021.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, responding to Duffy’s comments, appeared to relish the challenge posed by industry competitors.

“SpaceX is running like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry,” Kasturi said On the social media site he owns, X.

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Duffy’s remarks on television Monday morning, while significant for the broader space community, also appeared to be aimed at an audience of one—President Trump.

The president appointed Duffy, who already heads the Transportation Department, to lead NASA on an interim basis in July. It came six weeks after the president withdrew his nomination of billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead the space agency for political reasons.