Nasa doesn't trust Elon Musk despite over $4 billion SpaceX contract

In 2022, Nasa awarded Elon Musk’s company an additional $1.15 billion contract after the $2.9 billion awarded in 2021, as the the Washington-based agency plans to take humans under its Artemis mission.

Nasa is turning toward private firms to support its lunar exploration because "they can leverage that money by working with a commercial industry and, through competition, bring those costs down," according to Nelson's testimony in the Senate in 2022.

In a recent interview with NPR, Nasa Director Nelson revealed that the 52-year-old billionaire is a controversial person and that SpaceX would provide the rocket for Artemis 3.

Responding to the tech entrepreneur’s role, Nelson said: "Elon Musk ... one of the most important decisions he made, as a matter of fact, is he picked a president named Gwynne Shotwell. She runs SpaceX. She is excellent. And so I have no concerns."

The total value of SpaceX’s Human Landing System (HSL) is worth $4.2 billion through 2027, according to CNBC. Nasa has paid Musk’s company about $1.8 billion.

Nasa is targeting September 2025 for Artemis II, the first crewed mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for Artemis III, aiming to land humans near the lunar South Pole.