The new race for the Moon
- Seoyoung Kang
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
Feb 24, 2026
Seoyoung Kang
The race to the Moon is back. SpaceX and Blue Origin are putting their Mars and Space dreams on hold. Instead, they are working hard to meet a 2028 deadline set by the U.S. government. Both companies are now using all their resources to build lunar landers. The battle between Musk and Bezos has moved from the stars to the Moon’s surface.
Faced with the Trump administration's 2028 moon landing deadline, NASA partners SpaceX and Blue Origin have made a strategic shift. Therefore, they postponed their Mars plans and focused on developing lunar landers. SpaceX had previously had ambitious plans to build a city on Mars (in the late 2020s) using its massive rocket, Starship. However, with development of the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis 3 mission progressing slower than expected, Elon Musk has ultimately shifted his strategy. He told his investors, "Getting to the Moon is our top priority, and Mars will come later," and presented a new timeline for lunar landing by March 2027.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has been focusing on its suborbital spaceflight service, New Shepard. However, SpaceX's delay has presented a golden opportunity for Blue Origin. Blue Origin is the contracted lunar lander for the Artemis 5 mission, but NASA has indicated that if SpaceX's Starship fails to meet schedule, it can assign the Artemis 3 mission to another company regardless of its existing contract. In response, Blue Origin has also decided to suspend spaceflight for two years and focus its efforts on developing its lunar lander, the Blue Moon Mark 1. A NASA official said, "The best incentive for SpaceX is to have Blue Origin right behind them," and they expect the competition between the two companies to drive the success of the US space program.
The main reason for this strategy is the competition between the U.S. and China. China plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. To be ahead, the U.S. government set a new deadline for 2028. This makes the mission very urgent.
In the end, the battle between SpaceX and Blue Origin is not just about money. It is a national mission to keep the U.S. as the leader in space. The race to the Moon has become a symbol of global leadership.
