NASA Selects Blue Origin as Second Artemis Lunar Lander Provider

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NASA Selects Blue Origin as Second Artemis Lunar Lander Provider

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To develop a human landing system for the agency’s Artemis V mission to the Moon, NASA has selected Blue Origin of Kent, Washington. Through Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, uncovering more scientific discoveries, and preparing for future astronaut missions to Mars.

Blue Origin will design, develop, test, and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet NASA’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway, a space station where crew transfer in lunar orbit. In addition to design and development work, the contract includes one uncrewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a crewed demo on the Artemis V mission in 2029. The total award value of the firm-fixed price contract is $3.4 billion.

Read More: NASA

 

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Technical strengths and lower cost led NASA to select Blue Origin lander

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NASA selected Blue Origin to develop a second Artemis lunar lander because of technical strengths such as an aggressive schedule of test flights as well as its lower cost.

In a source selection statement published shortly after NASA announced it picked Blue Origin for the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) award May 19, the agency explained how it selected that company’s proposal over a competing bid by Dynetics.

Read More: SpaceNews

 

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Now that Blue Origin has ‘landed’ its second lunar contract, what’s next?

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NASA recently announced that the “national team,” led by Blue Origin and including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics, will construct and operate the second human landing system (HLS), according to Ars Technica. The Blue Moon, as the new HLS is called, is slated to serve on the Artemis V mission, scheduled for the late 2020s or early 2030s.

Just by looking at the new version of the Blue Moon lunar lander, it is clear that Blue Origin, having lost its attempt to wage lawfare against the SpaceX Starship’s selection as the first HLS, has buckled down and redesigned the vehicle to something that would impress NASA. According to Space News, a number of strengths, including lower costs, technical strengths and an aggressive test schedule leading up to the Artemis V mission led to the space agency’s selection of the Blue Moon.

Read More: The Hill