#Judge releases against contract lunar lander how to
While only one company will carry the first woman and next man to the lunar surface, all three will participate over the long haul, officials noted.īy learning how to live and work on another world - the moon - NASA will be better equipped to eventually send astronauts to Mars, Bridenstine said. NASA wants the new Artemis moon-landing program to be sustainable, unlike Apollo, with multiple missions and multiple locations on the lunar surface. Just last November, SpaceX and Blue Origin were among the companies that won contracts to make cargo deliveries to the moon. It builds off of NASA’s commercial cargo and crew programs for the International Space Station. Going commercial, Bridenstine said, will drive down costs while increasing access. Blue Origin and Dynetics are partnering with numerous subcontractors, including commercial launch companies. SpaceX is using its own Starship spacecraft - still under development in Texas - and its own rockets. The Dynetics lander is so low to the ground that only a few steps are needed, like a front porch, a feature that NASA gave high marks for safety and efficiency. Blue Origin’s version comes with a big ladder, according to artistic renderings. SpaceX’s proposed Starship lander is so tall that astronauts will use an elevator to get to and from the lunar surface.
Dynetics was in between, with $253 million. Blue Origin got more than half the total amount- $579 million - more than four times more than SpaceX’s $135 million. The two other companies, Boeing and Vivace, put in bids but were eliminated early on, leaving the three awarded contracts. NASA will rely on its own Orion capsules and Space Launch System megarockets - still under development - to launch astronauts to the moon. Bridenstine said NASA will go with the company that has the highest probability of success by 2024. Over the next 10 months, each company will refine its concept and NASA will decide which lander to test first. He noted it will be the first lunar lander since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972. “This is the last piece that we need in order to get to the moon” by 2024, Bridenstine said. Altogether, the contracts for the initial 10-month period total $967 million. The companies are SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, led by Elon Musk Blue Origin in Kent, Washington, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Dynetics, a Huntsville, Alabama, subsidiary of Leidos. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Thursday the three companies that will develop, build and fly lunar landers, with the goal of returning astronauts to the moon in 2024 and ultimately on to Mars. (AP) - NASA is turning to private industry for the first lunar landers for astronauts in a half-century, with three competing, quite contrasting versions. Musk reacted in his signature style - with a bit of snark.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. "Blue Origin remains deeply committed to the success of the Artemis program, and we have a broad base of activity on multiple contracts with NASA to achieve the United States' goal to return to the Moon to stay," the company said.
The justification for the ruling was not immediately made public, and remained under seal.īlue Origin said in a statement that its complaint had "highlighted the important safety issues with the Human Landing System procurement process that must still be addressed." Judge Richard Hertling ruled in NASA's favor on Thursday. The GAO rejected the company's claims, and Blue Origin took the matter to the Court of Federal Claims. In April, NASA announced it had awarded the contract to Musk's company - a deal worth $2.9 billion.īut Blue Origin filed a complaint about the decision to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), saying the bidding process had been unfair and that NASA should have offered more than one contract.
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