That capsule is designed to dock in space with SpaceX's Starship lunar lander, which then would ferry the crew the rest of the way.įor Blue Origin's mission, the Orion capsule and the Blue Moon lander would each dock with a planned space station orbiting the moon. Blue Origin's National Team won a 3.5 billion contract to develop and deploy a lunar lander for the Artemis program, this is for landings. NASA's multi-spacecraft plan for the initial Artemis moon trips involves its Space Launch System rocket launching astronauts toward the moon aboard the Lockheed-built Orion capsule. EXTENDED POWER Ample Power for Payloads The Blue Moon lander provides kilowatts of power to payloads using its fuel cells, allowing for long mission durations and the ability to last through the lunar night. lawmakers had pressed NASA to procure a second lander.
Each are expected to put two astronauts on the moon's surface.įriday's announcement was a long-awaited outcome for Bezos, who has invested billions of dollars for Blue Origin to vie for high-profile space awards with SpaceX, a dominant force in satellite launches and human spaceflight.īlue Origin and Dynetics lost to SpaceX in 2021, with NASA primarily blaming budget constraints for going with only one company.Īfter losing that competition, Blue Origin unsuccessfully sought to overturn NASA's decision, first with a watchdog agency and then in court. Today, Blue Originthe private spaceflight company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezosofficially revealed Blue Moon, the company's lunar lander designed for towing cargoscientific payloads. SpaceX's Starship lander is poised to conduct the first two astronaut moon landings, followed by a similar mission in 2029 with Blue Origin's lander. Blue Origin is leading the development of the descent stage, which brings the lander down to the surface, using a version of an uncrewed lunar lander called Blue Moon that it had previously been. The Artemis program envisions building a long-term presence on the moon. Blue Moon was in development for three years and Bezos said Thursday that the larger variant of the lander will be able to bring Americans back to the moon by 2024. The Dynetics-led bid raised NASA concerns over whether it met technical requirements, and the price was "substantially higher," the contract document said. But NASA expressed concern about "numerous conflicts and omissions" in Blue Origin's proposed schedule and development deadlines. Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers and their associated infrastructure, intended to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, currently under development by a consortium led by Blue Origin and including Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. NASA said in a contract document that it picked Blue Origin's proposal for its lower price, extra lander capabilities and a plan to execute two test landing missions on the moon in 20 at the company's expense.
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