Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will face off in orbit next year, NASA confirms. ‘As a rocket nerd, it’s going to be pretty awesome’

NASA has reaffirmed its plans for a lunar base and returning astronauts to the moon's surface within the next two years. Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that Artemis III, scheduled for next summer, will involve four astronauts conducting a docking exercise with Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos' lunar landers. The mission will remain in Earth's orbit, avoiding a full moon landing.

Artemis IV, the first manned lunar landing since Apollo, is still set for 2028. However, NASA is open to selecting between SpaceX and Blue Origin for the lunar lander. Isaacman emphasized that the new space race to return to the moon, now pitting China against the U.S., will be more urgent than before due to past delays. NASA is accelerating its pace, eliminating bureaucratic delays, and learning from the intense approach of the Apollo program.

Both landers will be launched next summer for docking practice with astronauts aboard NASA's Orion capsule. The mission requires a sequence of three launches from Cape Canaveral. NASA's planned moon base near the lunar south pole is expected to see its first launch by the end of the year. SpaceX is set to attempt a second lunar landing mission this time targeting the moon's south polar region with a rover and experiments.

By the time the first Artemis moonwalkers arrive, their lunar vehicle will already be stationed at the moon. To expedite and minimize risks, the astronauts will wear a lighter spacesuit for their initial lunar mission, tested on the International Space Station next year. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, part of the Artemis III crew, expressed the ambitious nature of this mission, stating, "It is incredibly ambitious. One thing I've always believed and learned is don't bet against America."