Bezos tried again with Lockheed Martin and Boeing for NASA’s moon lander

Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin bids again for a contract to develop NASA’s sustainable lunar lander to support lunar landing missions, after losing out to SpaceX in 2021.

Jeff Bezos and his aerospace company Blue Origin are chasing a second chance with NASA.

Blue Origin is collaborating with Boeing and Lockheed Martin to develop a manned landing system for NASA’s Artemis program to return a man and the first woman to the moon. they have it announce On December 7 corporate.

The joint lunar rover proposal, led by Blue Origin, marks the second attempt by billionaire Amazon founder Companies to get a coveted landing contract as NASA looks for more options to get astronauts to the lunar surface.

Last year, the US Space Agency In fact, SpaceX chose Elon Musk To conduct the first Artemis lunar landing missions over the next decade, he turned down a competitor’s offer from the team led by Blue Origin.

Then, NASA opened another competition looking for a second lunar lander to serve as a backup for SpaceX, he recalled. Reuters.

Bezos allied with Boeing, Lockheed Martin for the NASA contract

The national team of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics is vying for a NASA contract to develop a human landing system for the Artemis program. Blue Origin revealed its team’s performance in a brief statement posted to its website, saying that “in partnership with NASA, this team will achieve a sustainable presence on the Moon.”

The national team has submitted its proposal to NASA’s SLD program to help the United States establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface. National team partners are @employeeAnd the @Lockheed MartinAnd the @employeeAnd the @employeeAnd the @employeeAnd the @employee. https://t.co/SodVFBnPju pic.twitter.com/N2y5g8smTu

– blue origin December 6, 2022

The contract that was assigned to SPACEX

Last year, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use a version of the Starship that the Elon Musk-led company built to handle that mission, on a mission currently set for 2025.

The US agency’s decision to issue a single contract for that lander sparked an protest and a lawsuit from Blue Origin, both of which were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Starship has yet to fly its first launch, which is expected soon. In addition to being the most powerful rocket in the world, Starship has the advantage of being fully reusable, which sets it apart from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS rocket). The SLS lifted off for the first time on the Orion spacecraft on November 16th to launch the Artemis 1 mission, which is expected to end on December 11th.

ARTEMIS program

When the Artemis 1 mission ends with a successful launch of the Orion spacecraft into the Pacific Ocean, it will pave the way for astronauts to be aboard the Artemis 2 mission in 2024 in lunar orbit. Then, with the launch of Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, astronauts will return to walk on the Moon after half a century.

But there’s still a long way to go before NASA can send people to the moon on Orion and the SLS, he notes. Axios. The US space agency also plans to build a small Gateway space station in lunar orbit someday to establish a long-term human presence and use the moon as a test base for human missions to Mars by the mid-2030s. Its broader moon-to-Mars vision includes commercial partners such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Starship. heavy.

Finally, NASA picked SpaceX again last month, awarding it another $1.15 billion contract to develop a new spacecraft for a second manned landing demonstration mission in 2027 as part of Artemis 4.