SpaceX teams with NASA to land Americans on the Moon, next up: Mars

Well, it looks like Elon Musk will have his chance of putting a "literal Dogecoin on the literal moon" with SpaceX awarded a $2.9 billion contract from NASA to build a lunar lander that will take Americans to the moon for the first time since 1972.

SpaceX won the NASA contract for the Artemis lunar lander, beating out the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin (which worked with aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and defense contractor Dynetics). SpaceX might still have 'splosion issues with its Starship but NASA is confident the Musk-backed company has it in the bag.

NASA also liked the idea that Starship can be reused, which was a major decision in the US space agency choosing Musk's own SpaceX for the Artemis. SpaceX is already working with NASA on getting astronauts up and off the Earth and onto the International Space Station -- speaking of which, the next trip up there is in a few days on April 22.

NASA has goals of sending American astronauts to the moon by 2024, while they want to build a more permanent base on the moon and use it to much-more-easily get to Mars. I'm sure Elon wants to travel home to Mars -- it's a joke, it's a joke -- but putting a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon is something I absolutely, definitely, need to see Musk do.