SpaceX wins Nasa contract to send astronauts to moon

The mission, called Artemis, will be the first by the US space agency since its Apollo mission, the report said.

Nasa has awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX a contract to build a spacecraft to fly astronauts to the moon, bypassing Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics Inc, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The mission, called Artemis, will be the first by the US space agency since its Apollo mission, the report said. The bid by Musk, who also leads Tesla, beat one from Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, had partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper, according to the report.

In this image released by NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is rolled out of the horizontal integration facility. (AFP)