SpaceX wins the NASA contract – Prensa Libre

NASA has awarded billionaire Elon Musk a contract worth $ 2.9 billion to build a spacecraft that will transport astronauts to the moon, leaving Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics Inc, it reported Friday, April 16th, Washington Post.

Earth’s natural satellite mission will be the first for the US space agency since Apollo.

Musk, who is also the chairman of Tesla, was beaten by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, who has partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper, according to the report. Bezos also owns it Washington Post.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are the two richest men in the world, according to Forbes’ real-time millionaire ranking. The first, with a value of 197,800 million dollars, surpasses the second by about 16,100 million dollars.

SpaceX announced earlier this week that it raised about $ 1.16 billion in equity financing.

NASA and SpaceX have already formed a close partnership; Only on Thursday, April 15th, they reported lists of the second manned commercial mission launch from Florida to the International Space Station (ISS), on April 22nd, but they indicated that they must first overcome a “small” problem with the Falcon. Rocket.

Consequently, SpaceX Crew 2 maintains its launch plans with four astronauts on board next Thursday at 5:11 am, Mexico time, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, they said in a joint press conference.

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However, space company Elon Musk explained that the problem is with the Falcon 9 tanks, which carry more liquid oxygen than they are configured and that they will be working on on Thursday night 15 and this Friday morning 16.

SpaceX said that although it was a “slight difference,” they were investigating the mismatch and consulting with NASA.

The Falcon 9 is a reusable two-stage missile designed and manufactured by SpaceX to transport people and cargo into Earth orbit and beyond.

It’s the world’s first reusable orbital-class rocket, allowing SpaceX to reuse the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn reduces the cost of reaching space.

The mission is the second commercial mission, which will exempt SpaceX Crew-1, which left Cape Canaveral in November last year, and is also the first in which two astronauts from NASA’s partner space agencies participate.

The second crew consists of NASA astronauts Shane Kimbro and Megan MacArthur, as well as Akihiko Hoshid from the Japan Space Agency JAXA and French Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Crew-1 mission is scheduled to return and land on April 28, which will be delayed if the Crew-2 launch is delayed.

The Crew-2 mission, the second to fly with the Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station, is part of NASA’s commercial crew program, jointly with Boeing and SpaceX space companies.

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The four astronauts on this second mission will coexist for a few days with the current guests of the Crew-1 mission, which plans to return to Earth after six months in space.

This is the first time in more than 20 years that a team from NASA, ESA and JAXA has flown together.

After taking off from the historic platform 39A in Cape Canaveral, Dragon will gain a speed of about 28,000 kilometers per hour aboard a Falcon 9 missile, which for this launch will use the same fuel as the Crew-1 mission.

* In partnership with Forbes Mexico Article from The Forbes Team.