America’s next moon landing will be made by private companies, not Nasa.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine announced on Thursday that nine US companies will compete in delivering experiments to the lunar surface.
Mr Bridenstine said Nasa will buy the service and let private industry work out the details on getting there.
We're returning to the Moon, to stay, and nine American companies will work on developing technologies to get there. They'll bid on contracts to deliver our science and technology payloads, paving the way to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars: https://t.co/Ul0LYLRcqm pic.twitter.com/dfHRylaaGq
— NASA (@NASA) November 29, 2018
The goal is to get science and technology experiments to the surface of the moon as soon as possible.
The first flight could be next year with 2019 marking the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.
The announcement comes just three days after Nasa landed a spacecraft on Mars.
Nasa wants to see how it goes at the moon before committing to commercial delivery services at Mars.