US to seek rival bids for Artemis 3 as SpaceX lags, NASA chief says

NASA's top official on Monday said the US space agency was opening up the contract for its Artemis 3 moon mission to compete against SpaceX, which he said was running behind schedule. "I'm in the process of opening that contract up. I think we'll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others," NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who also serves as US Transportation secretary, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. Blue Origin is a SpaceX rival founded by Jeff Bezos. "We're going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the moon first." NASA's multibillion dollar Artemis series of missions are aimed at returning humans to the...