SpaceX launched its IPO on the same day the US sent astronauts to the moon for the first time in 54 years. And the timing is right: This is probably the last time NASA will try to send humans into deep space without a big help from a company that emerged from the tech-based business space.
The origins of NASA’s current lunar mission trace a complex path back to the second Bush administration, which began building a large rocket and spacecraft called Orion to return to the moon. By 2010, the project had grown over budget and was reorganized — and merged with a new program to support private companies building new orbital rockets.
That decision led to the SpaceX company’s savings contract and a rush of venture capital into extraterrestrial technology, with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket now carrying three Americans and one Canadian to the moon and back.
The SLS is the most powerful rocket in operation in the world today. It has flown just once before, when it launched the empty Orion spacecraft into a lunar probe in preparation for this week’s landmark mission, which will record the furthest human mission from the solar system.
In the future, however, the pressure will be on SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The two companies are competing to see who will put boots on the lunar regolith.
The SLS and Orion were built by die NASA contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, with the encouragement of Europe’s Airbus Defense and Space. They were also expensive, delayed, and over budget, while SpaceX flew dozens of cheap reusable rockets and began a major round of private investment.
When NASA decided to return to the moon again in 2019, the agency felt it had to stick with SLS and Orion.
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But there was one piece of the puzzle missing: A vehicle to transport astronauts from space to the surface of the moon. That, NASA decided, would come from a new generation of business-backed space companies. The agency has also turned to several private space companies to install robotic astronauts for further testing and testing, including Firefly Aerospace and Precision Missions.
SpaceX’s bid to use the Starship rocket as a Lander again, in 2021, won the job. It was a controversial decision. Taking a large vehicle to the moon would require a dozen or more launches to fill it with enough propellant for the trip. After years of waiting for a spacecraft, NASA chose to postpone the attempt to land on the moon and change its plan.
“This is a structure that no NASA administrator that I know would have chosen if they had the choice,” former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told Congress last year, noting that the decision was made without a Senate-confirmed leader of the agency.
Blue Origin has been added to the list in 2023 to build a space shuttle.
Now, the agency apparently plans to bake: In 2027, NASA will test Orion’s ability to meet one or both people sitting in orbit, before two possible landings in 2028. That will put more scrutiny on SpaceX’s next Starship launch, which is likely this month, and Blue Origin’s plans to launch sometime this year.
This year, there was a major overhaul of the program under the new director of NASA, billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, who paid for SpaceX to fly two space missions and was promoted by Musk as a suitable person to manage. After being nominated for the job by President Donald Trump, having his nomination revoked, and re-nominated, he took office in late 2025 facing a series of difficult choices about how to return to the moon.
In March, Isaacman scrapped plans, long considered wasteful or encouraged by outside observers, to build a space station called Gateway, and to invest in expensive SLS upgrades. Now, he has entered a new generation of private space companies.
Since China, however, is well on its way to putting one of its own citizens on the moon by 2030, any delays or missteps will be seen in the national spotlight. Silicon Valley has so far failed to beat Chinese companies in the practical areas of electric cars or robots. SpaceX has become a company that entrepreneurs across the Pacific want to emulate, but heading to the moon, Silicon Valley will have a chance to show that it can still own the technological frontier.
