Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin has won a NASA contract to develop spacecraft intended to ferry astronauts to the moon’s surface. This comes two years after NASA awarded a similar contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
NASA announced that it had awarded a contract to Blue Origin to provide a lunar lander for a moon mission that is scheduled to launch in 2029. NASA agreed to pay $3.4 billion for the 50-foot-tall spacecraft named Blue Moon. It can transport four astronauts to the moon’s surface.
Human landing system on Moon
“Blue Origin will build a human landing system as NASA’s second provider to deliver Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Calling these years “a golden age of human spaceflight”, he said that NASA together with commercial and international partnerships “will pave the way to land the first astronauts on Mars.”
The mission, Artemis V, is vital to NASA’s Artemis program to send astronauts back to the moon as part of an effort to explore its south pole region. It is significant for NASA’s lunar exploration capabilities and to support the space agency’s Moon to Mars exploration. Once the Orion spacecraft docks with Gateway, two astronauts will transfer to Blue Origin’s human landing system for about a weeklong trip to the Moon’s South Pole region where they will conduct science and exploration activities.
NASA had previously contracted SpaceX to create a spaceship that can land humans on the Moon for the Artemis III mission. Now, the space agency has chosen Blue Origin to create a spaceship that can meet the same requirements and demonstrate it on the Artemis V mission. This means that NASA will have multiple options from different companies for lunar landers.
“Having two distinct lunar lander designs, with different approaches to how they meet NASA’s mission needs, provides more robustness and ensures a regular cadence of Moon landings,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager of human landing system program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Blue Moon
Blue Moon is a versatile spacecraft that can transport a wide variety of small, medium, and large payloads to the lunar surface. Its ability to perform precise and soft landings is crucial for establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon.
Under the contract, Blue Origin and its partners, Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics, will develop and fly both a lunar lander that can make a precision landing anywhere on the Moon’s surface and a cislunar transporter. These vehicles are powered by LOX-LH2 which boasts a dramatic advantage for high-energy deep space missions.
