SpaceX in May successfully landed its Starship prototype, SN15, a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that could eventually carry astronauts and large cargo payloads to the moon and Mars
The United States is seeking to return to the Moon by 2024 under the Artemis program, using the lessons learned to prepare for a crewed Mars mission in the 2030s
Starlink, which has said it plans to deploy 12,000 satellites in total at a cost of roughly $10 billion, currently offers beta services in 11 countries, Shotwel said.
The planned lunar version of Starship would however serve a more modest goal -- docking with a future lunar orbital station, collecting astronauts, then setting them down on the Moon.
The decision also "creates a potential monopoly for all future NASA exploration missions because there would not be continuing programs for lunar access other than the SpaceX solution," the protest said.
"In terms of getting the operations ready, it's always easier the third time you do it," Daniel Forrestel, a NASA launch integration manager, told AFP.
Its new Vostochny Cosmodrome, purpose built for dispatching satellites to space, is underused, and its ongoing construction has been scandalised by corruption.