Bold claim: the billionaire space race is about to redefine how nations and billionaires compete for the Moon. In parallel to the U.S. pushing China toward lunar goals, two tech moguls—Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—are locked in their own high-stakes contest to land humans on the Moon first. NASA has opened the door for both SpaceX and Blue Origin to vie for Artemis-era crewed Moon missions, and a recent report has sharpened the focus on Blue Origin’s strategy to outpace SpaceX.
According to Eric Berger of Ars Technica, Blue Origin is pursuing a faster, if more complex, path to a crewed Moon landing. The leaked documents allegedly outline an accelerated mission architecture that relies less on SpaceX’s orbital refueling approach and more on a sequence of dedicated launches and precise dockings to assemble and deliver a Moon-capable lander. Gizmodo has not independently verified these documents, and Blue Origin did not respond to our request for comment.
The rivalry has grown louder
To understand the current flare-up, a quick recap is helpful. Recently, Musk jolted the spaceflight world by revealing that SpaceX, long associated with Mars ambitions, is shifting toward establishing a Moon base concept instead. This marks a significant shift in SpaceX’s strategic direction. The development comes as SpaceX faces the possibility of losing the Artemis 3 lunar lander contract to Blue Origin, which has put Blue Origin in a favorable position as NASA negotiates the next steps for Artemis 3.
Bezos responded in a symbolic way the day after Musk’s announcement, posting a pet-inspired image on social media that many interpreted as a nod to Blue Origin’s tortoise mascot. Bezos has explained that the tortoise references Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare,” signaling a philosophy of steady, deliberate progress—suggesting Blue Origin aims to outpace SpaceX through methodical, incremental development rather than rapid, leaps.
Artemis 3 aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since Apollo, with SpaceX originally contracted to build the crewed lander, the Starship Human Landing System (HLS). NASA had hoped Artemis 3 would launch in 2024, but development delays pushed the target to 2028, prompting NASA to reopen the lander contract. Since then, Blue Origin has emerged as SpaceX’s main challenger for the Artemis 3 lander, and Blue Origin is actively preparing its Blue Moon MK1 cargo lander for flight tests with an eye toward a crewed MK2 version if needed. If MK2 is ready before SpaceX’s Starship HLS, SpaceX could lose the Artemis 3 opportunity.
Blue Origin’s proposed approach
Here’s the gist of Blue Origin’s plan as described by Ars Technica’s reporting. The blueprint outlines two missions: an uncrewed demonstration and a crewed demonstration landing.
For the uncrewed flight, Blue Origin would conduct three launches using its New Glenn rocket. The first two launches would place two transfer stages into low Earth orbit to serve as orbital movers. The third launch would deploy a smaller MK2-IL lander into orbit. The three vehicles would then dock, with the first transfer stage departing to burn up in the atmosphere, while the second transfer stage carries MK2-IL into an elongated Earth–Moon transfer orbit. The lander would separates, descend to the Moon, then ascend back toward a low lunar orbit.
The crewed landing would involve four New Glenn launches: three to place three transfer stages into low Earth orbit and a fourth to launch MK2-IL along with a docking port. All four components would connect in space, with the first stage boosting the stack into an elongated Earth orbit, and the second stage carrying the assembly toward a rendezvous with NASA’s Orion spacecraft in a stable lunar orbit. Orion would dock with MK2-IL to enable crew transfer. The third transfer stage would push MK2-IL into a low lunar orbit, then the lander would descend to the surface, ascend again, and rejoin Orion for the journey back.
Does this sound straightforward? Not quite. Although this pathway avoids orbital refueling, it introduces a demanding set of deep-space docking maneuvers and orbital rendezvous tasks that would be new for Blue Origin. Berger notes that the company plans an uncrewed Moon landing later this year, potentially ahead of SpaceX’s 2027 target, but both teams still have a long road to travel before a successful crewed lunar touchdown becomes a reality.
