Jeff Bezos offers Nasa $2bn in exchange for SpaceX Moon contract

Two of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk (L) and Jeff Bezos (R) are also rivals when it comes to Nasa's mission to the Moon

Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos has offered $2bn (£1.4bn) to Nasa in the hope that they will give his Blue Origin company the Moon contract previously awarded to rival Elon Musk and SpaceX.

The contract is to build a landing craft that will safely carry astronauts down to the Moon's surface as early as 2024.

The space agency could only award the contract to one company and in April, Nasa gave the $2.9bn contract to SpaceX owned by Elon Musk, rejecting a bid from Blue Origin.

For the mission, Nasa had asked the US government for $3.3bn (£2.4bn) to build the lunar lander, but only received a small fraction of that amount from the US Congress, about $850m (£616m).

Now in exchange for the contract, Jeff Bezos has offered to help by offering the money needed. Writing a letter to Nasa he said it will "get the programme back on track right now."

A Nasa spokesperson said the agency was aware of Bezos's letter but didn't comment further.

Mr Bezos flew to space with his brother Mark (L) last week, in the first crewed flight of his New Shepard spacecraft

The mission to the Moon

SpaceX's winning bid will use an adapted version of its Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the Moon

Before deciding which company would be successful, Nasa had asked for plans for a spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the lunar surface.

Called the Artemis program, the journey to the Moon will be Nasa's first since Apollo 17 in 1972.

SpaceX was awarded the contract because of their track-record of sending people and satellites into Earth's orbit, it was also the cheapest method offered by a company by far. Senior Nasa official Kathy Lueders called SpaceX's offer "the best value to the government".

After losing out to SpaceX, Blue Origin filed a complaint with the US Government, alleging Nasa unfairly "moved the goalposts at the last minute". The outcome of the complaint will be decided in August, but it's thought a reversal of the decision is unlikely.

The billionaire rivals

Jeff Bezos is the richest human on the planet and Elon Musk is third-richest.

Bezos is worth $200bn and founded Amazon in 1994, which was originally just an online book shop. In 2000, he started the space company Blue Origin.

His offer to Nasa comes less than a week after his own journey to space alongside three crewmates aboard Blue Origin's rocket-and-capsule New Shepard.

The design developed by Blue Origin in partnership with aerospace giants was called "Blue Moon"

In his letter to Nasa, he explained how his Blue Origin's lunar lander called Blue Moon has been inspired by the lunar module (LM) that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the Moon for the first time in 1969.

On the design he said: "one of its important benefits is that it prioritizes safety."

Meanwhile, ahead of involvement with Nasa's Artemis Moon journey, Elon Musk's SpaceX company is planning the first civilian mission in orbit around the Moon aboard the company's rocket, Starship, in 2023.

Eight civilian crew members from around the world will join another billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on board for the journey.