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SpaceX will get a portion of a $7 billion NASA contract to use
its biggest rocket, Falcon Heavy, to send a new "Dragon XL"
spacecraft to the Lunar Gateway, an outpost NASA plans to build
that will orbit the moon sometime within the next decade.
The Dragon XL spacecraft, the latest variant in Musk's lineup of
so-called Dragon cargo and astronaut capsules, will carry
research supplies that will help future astronauts on the
surface of the moon collect lunar samples, a NASA announcement
said.
The Dragon variant, which would be docked at the orbital station
for six to 12 months per mission, is "optimized to carry more
than 5 metric tons of cargo to Gateway in lunar orbit," SpaceX
said in a tweet.
The financial value of the award was not given. But it signals a
key development in the U.S. space agency's Artemis program to
return to the moon - unveiled by Vice President Mike Pence a
year ago this week — and deals a win for Musk's space company as
it works to launch its debut manned mission to space this
summer.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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