NASA said Monday it was opening the marquee U.S. moon landing contract to other bidders because Elon Musk¡¯s SpaceX has experienced mounting delays with its Starship lunar lander.

The move paves the way for rivals such as Jeff Bezos¡¯ Blue Origin to snatch a high-profile mission to land the first astronauts on the moon in half a century.

¡°I¡¯m in the process of opening that contract up. I think we¡¯ll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others,¡± the U.S. space agency¡¯s acting chief Sean Duffy, who also serves as U.S. Transportation Secretary, told Fox News¡¯ ¡°Fox & Friends¡± program.