US Transport Secretary and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy said he would reopen the $2.9-billion contract to return US astronauts to the moon previously awarded to Elon Musk's space company SpaceX.
"I love SpaceX," Duffy told CNBC on Monday. "It's an amazing company. The problem is they're behind. They pushed their timelines out and we're in a race against China."
Duffy went on to say that US President Donald Trump "and I want to get to the moon in this president's term. So, I'm gonna open up the contract." Trump's term is due to end in January 2029.
The transport secretary said that he was going to let "other space companies... like Blue Origin," founded by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, compete with SpaceX.
"Whatever one can get us there first to the moon, we're going to take. And if SpaceX is behind, but Blue Origin can do it before them, good on Blue Origin."
Duffy went on to say that "we also might have two companies that can get us back to the moon in 2028... we're not going to wait for one company."
Under its Artemis programme, US space agency NASA is aiming to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, as a foundation for missions to Mars.
The space agency in 2021 awarded SpaceX the $2.9-billion contract to provide the lunar lander astronauts would ride to the Earth's satellite.
The timeline has already been pushed back multiple times - when SpaceX was awarded the contract the aim was to get US astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Now, Duffy is saying that NASA is aiming for a launch as early as February 2026 and a return to the moon in 2028.
In addition to SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are also involved in the Artemis mission.
SpaceX is under pressure after several failures and delays with its Starship test programme – most recently, a prototype of the Starship system, which is also to be used for Artemis, exploded during a test in Texas in June 2025.
