Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just delivered a stark warning to SpaceX: get to the moon faster or lose NASA's lunar contract. Speaking on CNBC Monday, Duffy said he's opening Artemis contracts to other companies as the U.S. races China back to the lunar surface, marking a potential shakeup in America's moon plans.
The space industry just got put on notice. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy isn't waiting around for SpaceX to catch up on its moon mission timeline, and he's ready to shake up NASA's Artemis program in a big way. Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday morning, Duffy made it crystal clear that America's return to the moon won't be held hostage by one company's delays.
"We're not going to wait for one company," Duffy, who's currently serving as acting NASA administrator, told viewers. "We're going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese. Get back to the moon, set up a camp, a base." The comment represents a major shift in NASA's approach to its flagship lunar program.
SpaceX won the coveted lunar landing contract back in 2021, beating out competitors to provide the landing system for astronauts on the Artemis III mission. But the timeline has been slipping ever since. Just last December, NASA pushed back the next Artemis missions again - the crewed lunar flyby moved to April 2026, and the actual moon landing got bumped to 2027.
Now Duffy's suggesting even more aggressive timelines. He thinks the April launch could happen as early as February, and he wants astronauts back on the lunar surface by 2028 with "two potential companies" handling the mission. The not-so-subtle dig at SpaceX's track record couldn't be clearer.
"They push their timelines out, and we're in a race against China," Duffy said, directly calling out SpaceX's delays. "The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term, so I'm going to open up the contracts." It's a remarkable public rebuke of Elon Musk's company from the nation's top space official.
The timing couldn't be more pointed. SpaceX has been struggling with its Starship program - the massive rocket that's supposed to carry astronauts to the lunar surface. The company just completed its eleventh Starship test earlier this month, but the path has been littered with explosions and setbacks. Last month, competitor Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket exploded shortly after the FAA cleared it for testing, highlighting the broader challenges facing the space industry.
