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And then there were three, and this time, Boeing has been left out.
NASA selected three US aerospace firms. USA To design and develop human landing systems for the agency’s Artemis program, one of which will land the first woman and the next man on the moon’s surface by 2024, Xinhua reported.
The three companies are Blue Origin of Kent, Washington; Huntsville Dianetics, Alabama; and SpaceX from Hawthorne, California.
Cutting Boeing from a key NASA space flight effort strikes at the space wing of the aerospace giant, which for decades has been a key contractor to the International Space Station and, more recently, a secondary provider in the efforts of the NASA to launch humans to the station under its Commercial Crew Program, Reuters reported.
NASA said it eliminated Boeing and another company as bidders for the lunar landing award early in the selection process, although a specific reason was not immediately clear.
The three companies, which include firms from tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, will share $ 967 million: Blue Origin’s contract is worth $ 579M, $ 135M from SpaceX and Dynetics will receive $ 253M, The Guardian reported.
Blue Origin proposes a three-stage lander that would abandon its landers on the moon’s surface to lighten the load when it’s time to return to Earth. SpaceX wants to use its general-purpose “Starship” spacecraft, which it says could also be used for missions to Mars. Dynetics plans an innovative lander that could be launched on any rocket, The Guardian reported.
“With these contractual awards, the United States is moving forward with the final step necessary to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and we now have companies contracted to do the work of the Artemis program,” he said.
NASA’s business partners will refine their landing concepts through the contract’s base period ending in February 2021. During that time, the agency will evaluate which of the contractors will conduct initial demonstration missions, Reuters reported.
Unlike the Apollo program that put astronauts on the moon almost 50 years ago, NASA is preparing for a long-term presence on Earth’s satellite that the agency says will eventually allow humans to reach Mars, Relying heavily on private companies created around shared visions for space exploration.
Choosing three providers allows NASA to have redundancy in the event a company falls behind in development, Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager of NASA’s human landing system program, said Thursday.
“I am confident that NASA will partner with these companies to help accomplish Artemis’s mission and develop the human landing system that brings us back to the Moon,” said Watson-Morgan.
“We have a history of proven lunar technical experience and capabilities at Marshall and across NASA that will pave the way for our efforts to land humans quickly and safely on the Moon in 2024.”
NASA says it will return to the Moon to make scientific discoveries, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation.
Working with its partners across the Artemis program, the agency hopes to fine-tune precision landing technologies and develop new mobility capabilities that allow robots and crew to travel longer distances and explore new regions of the Moon.
The agency has proposed building a new habitat and rovers, testing new energy systems, and more to prepare for human exploration of Mars.
“I think we have the potential for an incredibly exciting future in space with a base on the moon and ultimately sending people and having a self-sufficient city on Mars,” Musk, who also runs the electric car firm, told Reuters. Tesla. Thursday.
