“NASA Rules!!” was SpaceX/Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk’s reaction to the news his mob has been chosen to build a lander that will return humans to the Moon during the 2020s. America’s space agency has been busy assessing bids from SpaceX, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and others for the US$2.89 billion contract under the Artemis program (named for the Greek goddess of the Moon). One of the program’s long-term goals is to set up a permanent base on the Moon, but in the short-term, the SpaceX Starship lander will take the next man and the first woman to the lunar surface. What put Musk’s crew in front of the other bids? It was the lowest cost, reports say. More space exploration may be in the future – but getting enough funding for NASA’s ambitions from Congress is very much an ongoing issue from the past…