Finance quietly delayed plans to award two high-profile crew lunar lander contracts for a crucial program under the Trump administration’s hasty period to get astronauts to the moon in 2024. With less congressional funding and a new administration focusing on more national issues, the move was expected.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a team of aerospace giants led by Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, and Lidos-owned Dynamics received joint funding from NASA 967 million seeds last year to develop a competitive concept for the human lunar landing system. This is the space agency’s first attempt to spend money on astronaut lunar landers since the Apollo program in the 1970s.
Last Wednesday, NASA told the three contractors they would need to extend their development agreement, which would pick a new award date of April 30th. Under the Trump administration’s timeline, the agency planned to select two of the three bidders in late February, stamping approval for two systems that would essentially take humans to the moon.
The delay was all certain, but the spending bill passed by Congress in December gives NASA $ 850 million for the Human Lending System program, compared to the 3. 3.2 billion needed to stick to the 2024 timeline. But NASA remained committed to the February awards date and, similarly, the 2024 moonshot. Delays were also expected as Biden’s team blocked any space policy liberalization and focused more on climate change and epidemic prevention, leaving the long-term future of NASA’s Artemis program uncertain.
Now, NASA says the delay is designed to give it more time to evaluate Bolero’s proposals and “save the ability to make a unified transition” from the development phase, but added that it doesn’t need a full extension period and could grant a lender agreement. Previously. NASA said the expansion also gives companies more time to design and develop their lender systems.
SpaceX’s lunar lander pitch in Boca Chica, Texas, is Starship, a fully reusable vehicle with a height of about 16 stories, whose company is launching and landing short, suborbital test flights. The company’s development funding amounted to 135 million.
Jeff Bezos Blue Origin received the largest award of 579 million for developing its Blue Moon lander. The company announced in 2019 a “national team” made up of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to work on the project. Dynetics received 3 253 million for its lender and has partnered with Sierra Nevada Corp.
The Biden administration has not yet chosen its NASA administrator or announced any space policy objectives, but the Artemis program is expected to slow down by 2024 – a fact widely seen as unrealistic. This month, the administration announced its team for the White House’s Science and Technology Policy, selecting Eric Lander, a leading geneticist, as Biden’s top science adviser.
Trump left office on the day of the inauguration after NASA chief Jim Bridenstein served since 2018 and stepped up the Artemis program. He handed over control of the agency to his No. 2, Steve Zurzic, as acting administrator.
