Jeff Bezos’ space agency Blue Origin takes first lady to billionaire Moon Said NASA is nearing a decision on who will deliver its first single-built lunar lander Sends astronauts to the moon By 2024.

“This machine will take the first woman to the surface of the moon,” Bezos said A post on Instagram With the video of this week’s BE-7 engine test at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Twelve men have walked on the moon, but not women. NASA aims to change that, says executive Jim Bridenstein That last year The first woman to complete a lunar landing will be picked from the current astronauts.

“In the 1960s, young women did not have the opportunity to see themselves in that role,” Friedenstein said. “They do today. I think this is a very exciting opportunity.”

The Blue Origin engine, which has been in development for many years, has increased the test-fire time to 1,245 seconds. It is powered by the company’s national team human landing system Lunar Lander.

Blue Origin is the main contractor for the “national team” that met in 2019 to help create the Blue Moon lander. The squad includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Krumman and Dropper.

Bezos’ company competed for lucrative government contracts. In a race to build NASA’s system to take humans to the moon over the next decade, it will compete with rival billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Dynamics, owned by Lidos Holdings.

In April, NASA awarded the Blue Origin team a $ 579 million lunar lander development contract. SpaceX Received $ 135 million to build its starship system. Dynamics 3 received 253 million.

NASA has said it will select the first two companies from 2024 to 2021.

The meager funding for landing methods available to NASA by Congress and the uncertainty of the incoming Biden administration’s views on space exploration threaten to delay this decision.