Bezos offers NASA billions for lunar mission contract

(CNN) – The race is on to get back to the moon.

Jeff Bezos is offering NASA up to $2 billion if his rocket company is given a contract for a second human landing system (HLS) to Earth’s nearest neighbor.

In April, the space agency awarded an HLS contract to SpaceX, the company owned by Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Bezos wants to provide a second option.

If granted, Bezos and Blue Origin would build another lunar lander to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time since 1972.

In a proposal sent to NASA on Monday, the Amazon founder said he will waive any payments for the next two fiscal years – up to $2 billion.

“Unlike Apollo, our approach is designed to be sustainable and to grow into permanent, affordable lunar operations,” Bezos said in an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Blue Origin launched its first flight with people into space this month.