Nasa has named Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin as the second company to build a lunar lander under its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon for the firs time in more than 50 years. The US space agency awarded the first contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2021 in a $3 billion deal that was disputed by Mr Bezos at the time. Those initial missions using SpaceX’s Starship system are slated for later this decade. “We want more competition, we want two landers,” Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson said at an event in Washington on Friday. “It means you have reliability, you have backups. It benefits Nasa, it benefits the American people.” Today’s announcement evokes deja vu for Amazon.com founder Bezos and defense contractor Dynetics Inc, the head of a partnership with Northrop Grumman. Those companies lost out to SpaceX for the 2021 contract, part of an initial moon lander procurement program. Nasa under that program said it could pick up to two companies, but blamed budget constraints for only going with SpaceX. The new contract is the biggeset ever deal for Blue Origin, which Mr Bezos founded in 2000. The Amazon founder has invested billions of dollars into the company to compete for high-profile commercial and government space contracts with SpaceX. After losing in 2021, Blue Origin unsuccessfully fought to overturn Nasa’s decision to ignore its Blue Moon lander, first with a watchdog agency and then in court. Blue Origin and lawmakers had pressured Nasa to award a second lunar lander contract to promote commercial competition and ensure the agency has a backup ride to the moon. Nasa in early 2022 announced the program for a second lander contract. Nasa chief Bill Nelson said at the time: “I promised competition, so here it is.” Blue Origin has already named its corporate partners for the lunar lander: Lockheed Martin , Boeing, spacecraft software firm Draper, and robotics firm Astrobotic. Northrop Grumman, previously a key partner in Blue Origin’s unsuccessful Blue Moon bid in 2021, switched teams to join its former rival Dynetics. Nasa’s multi-spacecraft plan for the Artemis moonshots involves its Space Launch System rocket launching astronauts toward the moon aboard the Lockheed-built Orion capsule. That will dock in space with a lunar lander that will ferry the crew the rest of the way to the Moon’s surface. Additional reporting from agencies Read More ‘It’s becoming like an airport’: How SpaceX normalised rocket launches Watch live: Nasa reveals who will build second Artemis lunar lander Nasa Mars lander study reveals ‘main source of heat’ on Red Planet Saturn’s rings are no more than 400 million years old – study

Twitter’s ad revenue in the US has plunged by more than half since Elon Musk took the company over, according to reports. Internal documents show that Twitter made $88 million worth of ad sales between April and May this year, The New York Times reported, marking a 59 per cent drop from the same period last year. Shortly after Mr Musk’s takeover in October 2022, several key sales executives at Twitter where fired, while controversial figures like Donald Trump and Andrew Tate were allowed to return to the platform. Following the sackings and change in policy, several high profile brands confirmed that they would no longer be advertising through Twitter due to concerns with the platform and its leadership. Twitter’s valuation also plunged in the months following the $44 billion takeover deal, with Mr Musk saying in March that the company was worth $20 billion. Investment firm Fidelity has since estimated Twitter to be worth $15 billion. In April, Mr Musk said the firm was “roughly breaking even”, claiming that “almost all advertisers have come back or said they are going to come back”. Last month, Mr Musk announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of Twitter in order to focus on overseeing product, software and sysops as the company’s chief technology officer. His replacement, Linda Yaccarino, appears to have been selected based on her success and connections within the advertising world, having served as an executive for NBCUniversal. Ms Yaccarino and Mr Musk appeared together at a public event earlier this year, giving an indication that her focus will primarily be aimed at developing and improving relationships with advertisers, whose purchases make up the majority of Twitter’s revenue. One potential route to achieving this is by reinstating Twitter’s Influence Council of marketers and advertising executives, which allowed industry figures to give direct feedback on how they wanted the platform to look before it was disbanded. Read More What is superintelligence? How AI could wipe out humanity – and why the boss of ChatGPT is doomsday prepping

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Burnley boss Vincent Kompany had no qualms about the lengthy delay to check an offside call late on in their 2-1 Premier League loss at Bournemouth, but was incensed by the decision not to review a handball in the final moments of the match. The Clarets suffered an eighth defeat of the campaign after goals by Antoine Semenyo and Philip Billing cancelled out Charlie Taylor’s sweet strike in the 11th minute. A controversial moment occurred after 89 minutes when Jay Rodriguez fired into the bottom corner and – although it was immediately ruled out for offside – video assistant referee David Coote at Stockley Park took six minutes to review the incident. Initially a green line was drawn to signal it was onside before a new line was drawn, which showed red and it was eventually ruled out, but Kompany was left stunned that a supposed handball by Chris Mepham was not checked in the eighth minute of added time. Mepham and Burnley substitute Sander Berge tangled from a Taylor cross which resulted in Bournemouth goalkeeper Andrei Radu making a close-range save that appeared to be from Berge’s head, but Kompany stated it was actually via Mepham’s hand. “It’s obvious at this moment in time, I will not have anything other than disappointment,” Kompany said. “I want to address the first thing for me now which is the last thing that happened in the game. The handball situation in the box. “Games get played on a knife edge but I am trying still to wrap my head around what happened in that moment of time. “We take five to seven minutes to review the offside or not offside. The line goes green which means goal, the line goes red which means it is not a goal. “OK, I am a person who always believes in the fact they have taken their time because they want to make the right decision. And a decision gets given against us. “Tough one to take but then when the situation happens in the last moment of the game and we don’t take time to review the handball? “There is no call to the referee to delay play when the players have called for it and the staff on the bench, we could see with a wide angle that there was a handball. “It is the hand that brings the ball down. And there is no check, no delay for the restart and the ball goes and we lose the game. I am trying to understand what is happening in that moment.” Kompany revealed he did speak with referee Sam Barrott after the match. He added: “Yeah, I think for the first time in my career since I have been a manager I have actually politely and calmly gone to ask for a word of explanation from the officials. “They were very open with me and they seemed surprise by the fact we would have liked this (handball) to go to VAR, so it means no one from VAR has told them it was worth reviewing. When you look at it, it is as blatant as it can be. “I’m fairly confident this one would have taken them 15 seconds (to review).” While Kompany was flabbergasted, Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola was able to toast a first Premier League win at the 10th time of asking thanks to Semenyo’s fine solo goal and Billing’s 76th-minute lob from 40 yards. “Obviously happy, relieved because I think it was a needed victory for us,” Iraola said. “Probably when you are in this situation everything costs a lot more. It happened today. We really deserved to win today but with the last VAR decision of the offside, we had to suffer until the end. “For sure we all were remembering the Brentford game in stoppage-time and thinking it cannot happen again, because we didn’t deserve – we deserved to win clearly the game.” On the handball, Iraola admitted: “I haven’t seen it.” Read More Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta: What Eddie Nketiah has done is remarkable England were ‘desperate to win’ after Tonga provocation – Shaun Wane Exeter run riot against sloppy Sale Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola claims maiden Premier League win over Burnley Matty Ashton at the double as England seal series win over Tonga Everton financial reports just another thing to deal with – Sean Dyche