Now, according to Acting Administrator of NASA Sean Duffy, that may not be the case.

Elon Musk's behemoth rocket still has not conducted a successful mission into low Earth orbit, sparking some doubt about whether or not its human landing spacecraft would be ready in time for Artemis III, a planned moon landing, in 2027.

To ensure American boots return to the lunar surface by then - and, most importantly, before communist China - Duffy officially opened the lunar lander opportunity to SpaceX competitors.

"We are in a race against China so we need the best companies to operate at a speed that gets us to the Moon FIRST," Duffy said on X.

"SpaceX has the contract to build the [Human Landing System] which will get U.S. astronauts there on Artemis III. But, competition and innovation are the keys to our dominance in space so @NASA is opening up HLS production to Blue Origin and other great American companies."

As T.J.Muscaro reports below for The Epoch Times, NASA already planned to utilize landing spacecraft from multiple spacefaring companies, including Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, but SpaceX won the contract to provide the first lander.

Duffy did not say the contract to provide a lander was canceled, but rather that SpaceX was no longer the guaranteed choice for Artemis III.

Musk rebuked the idea that his company would not make the deadline in time.

"SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry," Musk said on X in direct response to Duffy.

"Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words."