NASA at a Crossroads: Choosing the Shape of a New Mars Orbiter
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House committee opens NASA to broader commercial bids for lunar and deep‑space missions
A House committee overseeing NASA approved a reauthorization bill that includes an amendment allowing the agency to buy operational deep‑space transport services from U.S. commercial providers. The change signals congressional intent to let private firms compete for cargo and crew missions beyond the Moon’s surface architecture currently tied to Artemis hardware.

Private companies are rewriting the US–China race to the Moon
Commercial ambition is compressing timelines and reshaping the operational logic of lunar and deep‑space competition: private firms are not only lowering access costs to low Earth orbit but also driving on‑orbit processing, power and logistics concepts that will influence who sets practical norms off Earth. Recent government and industry moves — from NASA’s Artemis checkouts and congressional procurement changes to China’s state‑led orbital cloud plans and U.S. pushes for small lunar reactors — illustrate how public policy and private capability are converging to determine near‑term advantage.


