#Race into space list order update#

Still seething from the GAO’s rebuke, Bezos then filed suit against NASA in Federal Claims court, essentially trying to “ sue way to the moon,” per Musk.

'We stand firm in our belief that there were fundamental issues with NASA's decision, but the GAO wasn't able to address them due to their limited jurisdiction,' the company said following the GAO’s announcement. Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin responded to the Artemis contract by first protesting the “ fundamentally unfair” decision with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), which delayed progress on the project until July when the GAO dismissed the claims, even though Bezos offered NASA $2 billion to grant them the contract instead. And in April, NASA gave the company a $2.9 billion contract to ferry its Artemis lunar lander to the moon. In February, NASA awarded SpaceX with a $331.8 million contract to bring its Gateway station into lunar orbit in 2024. The company is currently working on a plan to launch a Starship prototype into orbit, though no timetable is currently set for that launch - it was originally slated for July then pushed back to November, depending on regulatory approval, and is now set for January.īut those failed tests have done little to slow SpaceX’s roll over its competition. SN15, which launched in May, did however manage to land in one piece.

#Race into space list order update#

Update your settings here, then reload the page to see it.Ī subsequent test of the SN11 Starship prototype later that month didn’t even get back to the landing pad.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. The 100-passenger spacecraft, which was designed to help fulfill CEO Elon Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars and, presumably, titling himself God Emperor of the Red Planet (or some such), spectacularly exploded on the launchpad following a high-altitude test flight in March. SpaceX’s endeavors to get its Starship prototype off the ground have not been nearly as successful as Starlink, mind you. SpaceX’s Starlink ISP service, which now serves more than 10,000 customers, has put some 1,475 of the microsats into orbit above the planet (with a total of 42,000 planned, offering global coverage by September), despite the vehement protests of astronomers who fear their presence will blind ground-based telescopes. In January, the company successfully launched its first “ rideshare mission” aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, ferrying 133 microsatellites into orbit along with 10 of its own Starlink satellites. SpaceX continues to lead the burgeoning private spaceflight industry from the front. In 2021, the heads of these private companies finally made good on their myriad promises, successfully launching civilians, astronauts and, in two cases, themselves into the uppermost reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. Where once the two most powerful empires on the planet vied to be first to the moon, we now have corporations led by billionaire barons - Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic - boasting a future filled with exo-planetary tourism. We’re in the midst of a modern day space race.