The largest lander, by far, of the new entrants is from SpaceX, which bid its Starship reusable launch vehicle. Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said that Starhip will be able to deliver up to 100 metric tons of cargo to the surface of the moon and return an unspecified amount back to Earth.

“We do think this is a really neat program. It reminds us a bit of the COTS program,” said Shotwell, referring to NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services effort that funded the development of SpaceX’s commercial cargo capability.

Shotwell said Starship lunar lander missions could begin in 2022. Such missions would be cargo only, but she said could serve as a “nice stepping stone” to later crewed missions. She didn’t give a date for crewed missions, but said SpaceX would fly Starship “a lot” before flying any missions with people on board.