ELON MUSK has claimed SpaceX could put humans back on the Moon before Nasa’s intended 2024 Artemis mission.
The US space agency awarded the contract for the Human Landing System (HLS) it needs for the Artemis mission to SpaceX and Musk recently indicated that it could be ready sooner than planned.
Twitter user Everything Artemis (@artemis360_moon) reached out to Musk and said: “NASA has started its @SpaceX lunar lander payments.
“Hopefully (and I trust) the SpaceX team will work fast.
“@elonmusk do you expect to have Lunar Starship ready to land humans in 2024 (despite other delays)?”
The SpaceX CEO replied: “Probably sooner.”
SPaceX is said to be designing the HLS like a modified version of its Starship rocket.
The awarding of the HLS contract to SpaceX caused controversy and legal challenges from SpaceX competitors Blue Origin and Dynetics.
Nasa even suspended payments to SpaceX at one point but their project is back on track now.
Initially, Nasa was considering offering two contracts to either SpaceX, Blue Origin or Dynetics to develop the HLS.
Due to constraints with money and timings, the US space agency then decided it could only offer SpaceX a contract.
This led to Blue Origin and Dynetics filing a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a “stop work order” being put in place.
The GAO has since denied the protest and removed the stop work order so Nasa could start paying SpaceX and their project could go ahead.
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In other news, Musk is working on a Tesla robot that looks like a human – and will perform “boring or dangerous tasks”.
WhatsApp is working on a feature that could see your messages disappear after 90 days.
And, Twitter is having to make changes to its redesign of the app after users complained about headaches and migraines.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
