Status: 04/17/2021 02:12 a.m.
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It is to be the first manned flight to the moon since 1972: The US space agency NASA has commissioned the company SpaceX from Tesla founder Elon Musk to build a lunar rocket.
From Julia Kastein,
ARD-Studio Washington
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NASA continues to rely on Tesla founder Elon Musk in manned space travel. The US space agency commissioned Musk’s company SpaceX to build the next rocket for flights to the moon – the first since the Apollo missions 50 years ago.
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Julia Kastein
ARD-Studio Washington
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SpaceX is already using the Falcon 9 to transport astronauts to the International Space Station ISS for NASA. The special thing about Musk’s moon rocket “Starship” is that all parts of the carrier system should be reusable and that the costs for each individual flight should be significantly reduced in the medium term.
The price was apparently also an argument for NASA: According to the “Washington Post”, SpaceX made the cheapest offer with almost three billion dollars – and so beat the competition, including “Blue Origin”, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos .
SpaceX founder Elon Musk was able to prevail with the cheapest offer.
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Test flights not yet successful
However, there is still a lot to do before the “Starship” can actually fly people to the moon as part of the Artemis mission. The previous test flights of the prototype either ended with a crash landing or the rocket exploded in the air.
When there will be the first manned flight to the moon since 1972 is still open. Former US President Donald Trump had set NASA a deadline of 2024. The government of his successor Joe Biden is currently reviewing the schedule again.
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