Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, two of the three richest men in the world, are involved in a stratospheric confrontation to dominate space — and the outcome could decide the future of trips to the Moon and even AI infrastructure.
In light of the success of the Artemis II mission, which took astronauts to fly over the Moon for the first time in 50 years, both Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin have redirected their attention from other projects to prepare for future lunar missions.
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Both companies received billion-dollar contracts from NASA years ago to develop lunar landers for two future Artemis missions, which plan to land humans on the Moon by the end of the decade for the first time since 1972.
SpaceX de Elon Musk x Blue Origin de Jeff Bezos
SpaceX is developing its Human Landing System, an ambitious module that, at 50 meters tall (about 15 stories), is larger than any other ever built and will use an elevator to transport astronauts and cargo to the lunar surface from the crew cabin, located near the top of the module.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin is developing its Blue Moon module. Although it has a more traditional appearance, it is also technologically advanced.
According to Space.com, it should be equipped with sensors capable of mapping the Moon’s surface to avoid dangers and identify the flattest area for landing.
Both companies’ modules are designed to be reusable, which should reduce the cost of future lunar missions.
The stakes for SpaceX and Blue Origin are high. The lunar lander that is ready first and successfully tested could help the United States surpass China by taking astronauts to the Moon before the world’s second largest economy plans to launch in 2030.
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The first test will be the Artemis III mission, scheduled for mid-2027, which could test both SpaceX and Blue Origin landing modules — if they are ready in time.
As part of the mission, astronauts will be launched into low Earth orbit aboard a rocket that will carry NASA’s Orion capsule, similar to the one used on the Artemis II mission.
If everything goes according to plan, SpaceX and Blue Origin will separately launch their modules into space to test their ability to dock with the Orion spacecraft. This will be the first test of a process essential for the Artemis program’s lunar landings in 2028.
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During these missions, the Orion capsule and lunar module will be launched separately and dock in lunar orbit before the astronauts descend to the surface.
This first competition will also bring NASA closer to the goal of establishing a permanent presence on the celestial body.
Last month, NASA announced a phased plan to build a permanent lunar base and outlined a strategy of manned landings every six months, with the aim of developing the infrastructure for a base on the natural satellite after the first landings in 2028.
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These efforts are part of a NASA initiative to establish a human presence at the lunar south pole, which “will strengthen American leadership in space, boost scientific discoveries and serve as a testing ground for manned missions to Mars,” according to an agency presentation.
Although Musk’s SpaceX was founded in 2002, two years after Blue Origin, the company is, in many ways, light years ahead of its competitors. It was the first to develop a commercially proven reusable rocket, the Falcon 9, which since its first successful mission in 2010 has become a benchmark for the sector.
SpaceX used the Falcon 9 in 165 launches last year, breaking its previous record and representing 85% of all U.S. orbital launches, according to Space.com.
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The company also used the Falcon 9 to form the largest satellite constellation ever created, with 10,000 satellites in orbit that power its Starlink internet service.
Despite these achievements, Bezos is betting that Blue Origin will win by moving forward slowly and steadily.
The company performed its first orbital launch with the New Glenn rocket in 2025 and successfully reached orbit, although the booster was not recovered for reuse as planned.
In November, the company managed to land the booster back on Earth after helping launch two probes to Mars as part of NASA’s Escapade (Plasma Acceleration Escape and Dynamics Explorers) mission.
AI infrastructure in space
As AI continues to advance on Earth, both Blue Origin and SpaceX are exploring the idea of taking the infrastructure that supports it to space.
Although the proposal is still in its early stages, with more powerful solar arrays in the future, space data centers would have the advantage of using cleaner solar energy, according to Jeff Thornburg, SpaceX veteran and CEO of Portal Space Systems, in a previous interview with Fortune.
High above the Earth, these future floating data centers would also be free from the regulations and various protests faced by companies when building this infrastructure on the planet.
Still, it’s unclear whether it’s feasible to install AI data centers in space. The technical and financial challenges are enormous, especially because launching equipment into orbit is much more expensive than building AI infrastructure on Earth.
Even so, both SpaceX and Blue Origin are already moving to prepare if this becomes reality.
SpaceX has already submitted plans to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch up to 1 million satellites with AI computing capabilities. Blue Origin requested authorization from the FCC last month to launch almost 52,000 satellites capable of performing AI computing.
“Orbital data centers are the most efficient way to meet the growing demand for AI computing power,” SpaceX wrote in its application.
As Bezos predicted at a technology conference in Turin, Italy, last year, within the next few decades the next frontier of AI could be off the planet.
“Space will end up being one of the places that continues to make Earth better. This has already happened with meteorological satellites. It has already happened with communications satellites,” he said. “The next step will be data centers and other types of manufacturing.”
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