NASA picks Blue Originled team to build second human landing system on the moon, joining SpaceX

News Summary

  • NASA has chosen a Blue Origin-led team to develop a second lunar landing system for the Artemis program, as the agency looks to provide competition with SpaceX and support long-term exploration of the moon.The winning team includes Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics.
  • The team beat out one other proposal from Dynetics for this award, which is called Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD).The SLD award includes an uncrewed demonstration landing and a crewed demonstration landing.
  • SpaceX’s two missions are scheduled for Artemis III and Artemis IV.Blue Origin said it would develop a 52-foot tall lander its calling Blue Moon and land it on the lunar south pole.
  • It was notable at the time that the agency selected only one vendor for the task – so notable, in fact, that competitors Blue Origin and Dynetics filed protests with a major government watchdog over the decision.
  • The agency wants to maintain a cadence of about a mission a month, with astronauts staying on the moon for up to thirty days at a time.
  • However, it and this team will be eligible to compete for future crewed missions to the moon beyond Artemis V.NASA’s Artemis program is incredibly ambitious.
NASA has chosen a Blue Originled team to develop a second lunar landing system for the Artemis program, as the agency looks to provide competition with SpaceX and support longterm exploration of th [+1821 chars]