SpaceX Founder criticizes NASA’s plan to open HLS contract to Blue Origin

Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX, has criticized NASA’s plan to open the HLS contract to competitors. Sean Duffy, NASA’s acting Administrator, has announced that HLS production is now opening to Blue Origin and other space industry players. However, he didn’t reveal anything specific about the expansion.

We are in a race against China so we need the best companies to operate at a speed that gets us to the Moon FIRST.

SpaceX has the contract to build the HLS which will get U.S. astronauts there on Artemis III.

But, competition and innovation are the keys to our dominance in… pic.twitter.com/dAo0so5qqZ

— NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy (@SecDuffyNASA) October 20, 2025

In a reply to Duffy, SpaceX’s Chief said Jeff Bezos’ space rocket company has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the Moon. This statement is quite true, as the first New Glenn rocket became the first Blue Origin rocket to deliver the Pathfinder satellite for the Blue Ring prototype program. That means no prior Blue Origin missions have delivered independent payloads to orbit.

Musk emphasized his comment with “Useful payload”.

Blue Origin has scheduled the second New Glenn flight for this year to launch NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) probes, but the launch date is not finalized.

“SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words,” Musk added.

NASA has contracted SpaceX for the Moon mission as part of the Artemis program to develop the first commercial human lander that will carry two astronauts to the lunar surface. This award has a firm-fixed price of $2.89 billion. SpaceX will complete the mission with a custom Starship rocket, which includes a cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks.