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Published 22:10 IST, February 2nd 2020

Elon Musk blames NASA's bureaucracy as new US bill threatens to delay 2024 moon mission

Escalating the NASA-SpaceX feud, Elon Musk on Sunday blamed the American space agency's bureaucracy for not yet returning astronauts to the moon in 2024

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Escalating the NASA-SpaceX feud, Elon Musk on Sunday blamed the American space agency's bureaucracy for not yet returning astronauts to the moon, as he replied to a tweet. Musk was talking about the progress of mankind from the train to the rocket, expressing his disappointment at not being to return to the moon after its first flight 50 years ago. This comment comes amidst the US Congress proposing a bill urging NASA to push back its moon landing mission to 2028 instead of 2024 and focus on the Mars.

Elon Musk takes on NASA's bureaucracy

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Musk-NASA feud

Previously in October, the two American agencies were feuding over delay in the execution of government contracts on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's side. While NASA has often collaborated with SpaceX on sending satellites, crew, and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), signs of friction were seen on September 27. One day prior to Musk unveiling his new shiny spacecraft 'Starship', NASA director Jim Bridenstine gently reminded Musk of his impending 'Commercial Crew' commitment stating that NASA expected the same level of commitment to investments made by the American taxpayer.

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Elon Musk's rebuttal

Retaliating to Bridenstine's comment, Musk said in an interview to an American News Channel, " Everything in aerospace is eight years behind. Most of the work that is required from now through flight of NASA astronauts is a long series of safety reviews, so it’s not really hardware related, and it’s really going as fast as we can go. If there’s some way to make it go faster, I would make it go faster.”

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NASA's moon landing mission - Artemis

According to its official website, Artemis is NASA's pioneer lunar exploration program where they plan to use innovative new technologies to conduct a massive space exploration of the Moon. NASA plans to partner with commercial and international partners to establish sustainable missions by 2028. Their immediate aim is to initially aims to send an unmanned flight 'Artemis-1' to test the Space Launch System (SLS) - NASA's powerful new rocket in 2020. Then they plan to send a manned mission 'Artemis-2' to space and then by 2024 it plans to land on the moon.

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22:10 IST, February 2nd 2020