NASA elects nine companies to compete for Monday missions

American Space Agency NASA selected nine companies that will compete to build a spaceship that will send supplies to the moon and conduct research missions there.

NASA plans soon to send people to the moon, for the first time since Apollo's mission in 1972.

The only known company chosen is the airspace giant Lockheed Martin, who has a long history of working with NASA.

NASA is gradually privatising its space missions.

Private companies for years send supplies to the International Space Station, while SpaceX and Boeing are working on a space shuttle that will send astronauts to the moon in 2019.

Manager NASA, Jim Bridenstein, said that access allows nothing to cut costs.