Oct 23, 2025
3 min read
Duffy said he would open up the contract to other space companies that can help get to the moon faster in their race against China.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that Elon Musk's SpaceX is behind the U.S. deadline for returning to the moon with Artemis and will open the contract to other companies.
"We're not going to wait for a company," Duffy, now NASA's acting administrator, told "Squawk Box" on Monday.
Spacex did not return a request for comment.
Spatex is among the various contractors involved in NASA's Artisan mission, which is said to be "the first man on the moon" and sent to Mars.Jeff Bezos said: "Blue Origin, Boeing, Actuator, Cut Martin and Northrop Grumman are also supporting the mission.
SpaceX won the contract in 2021 to provide a lunar landing system for astronauts on the Artemis III mission.
In December, NASA moved up the Artemis mission, delaying the next launch to send astronauts around the Moon to April 2026 and moving a mission to land two astronauts on the Moon's south pole region to 2027.
Duffy said Monday that he thinks the April launch could be as early as February and that the agency is looking "back to the moon in 2028" with two potential companies.
They released a program and we are on the racetrack against SpoPox."The president and I will go to the moon when the president is in office, so I'll open the contract."
Musk responded darkly in his social network X on Monday, demanding payment for orbit, let alone Moon."
The Blue bread is the Blue's Maiden of the New Glenn Rocket and successfully checked the payload test in space.The new Glenn is a powerhouse and replacement for Spacex's Trecon 9 rocket.
After Musk's followers pointed out to him about the mistake, Musk specified about 40 minutes later in another post, "(New cargo)."
Rocket testing has not always been smooth sailing for SpaceX and the space industry.
The company launched its eleventh Starship test rocket earlier this month, after a series of setbacks and explosions.Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket exploded last month, shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it to resume testing.
The government's ongoing upgrades may affect the contract award plan.A request for comment on the contract process was responded to with an automated reply that the organization was closed.
It was previously reported that NASA employees working on the Artemis missions, along with contractors such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, would continue to work during the shutdown.
-La Kolodny contributed to this report.
