Why NASA's moonshot, Boeing, Bezos and Musk have a lot riding on U.S. election
Last updated on: 30 October,2020 09:27 pm
Why NASA's moonshot, Boeing, Bezos and Musk have a lot riding on U.S. election
WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s differences with rival presidential candidate Joe Biden extend far beyond planet earth.
President Trump’s plans to win the race in space call for a 2024 moon mission, and ending direct U.S. financial support for the International Space Station in 2025 - turning over control of the decades-old orbital laboratory to private space companies.
Biden, on the other hand, would likely call for a delayed moonshot and propose a funding extension for the International Space Station if he wins the White House, according to people familiar with the fledging Biden space agenda.
Pushing back the moon mission could cast more doubt on the long-term fate of Boeing Co’s BA.N Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, just as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin scramble to bring rival rockets to market as soon as next year.
Extending support for the space station for a decade would also be a major boost for Boeing, whose $225 million annual ISS operations contract is set to expire in 2024 and is at the depths of a financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 737 MAX grounding after fatal crashes.
Boeing and SpaceX are already supplying spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the ISS under a program begun under the Obama administration and supported by both Trump and Biden.
Though slowing the moonshot would push back contracts for moon landers and related equipment the companies aim to win, the emerging Biden space agenda appears broadly set to promote competition between traditional defense contractors like Boeing and “new space” rivals like SpaceX who promise lower-cost and reusable rocket systems and space vehicles.