Bezos' Blue Origin wins NASA astronaut moon lander contract to compete with SpaceX’s Starship

Alexander Gerst | NASAWASHINGTON — Jeff Bezos has his NASA moon ticket. The billionaire's space company Blue Origin won a key contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Friday to develop a crewed lunar lander for delivering astronauts to the moon's surface later this decade under the agency's Artemis program. NASA's contract award is worth just over $3.4 billion, officials said Friday, while Blue Origin Vice President John Couluris said the company will contribute "well north" of the contract's value as well. "We're making an additional investment in the infrastructure that will pave the way to land the first humans on Mars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in announcing the Blue Origin award. A messy sagaElon Musk founder of SpaceX (L), and Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.