“This competitive approach drives innovation, brings down costs, and invests in commercial capabilities to grow the business opportunities that can serve other customers and foster a lunar economy. WASHINGTON Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos says his company will cover more than 2 billion in costs if NASA will award it a second Human Landing System (HLS) contract. “Having two distinct lunar lander designs, with different approaches to how they meet NASA's mission needs, provides more robustness and ensures a regular cadence of Moon landings,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager, Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. However, NASA’s aim is for multiple companies to provide Moon landing services in an effort to foster the burgeoning private spaceflight industry-hence today’s contract award. That new contract will mean SpaceX evolving its first-gen Artemis III Starship HLS so that it can be used to dock with the Lunar Gateway, thus making it usable for future missions. SpaceX will fly at least one uncrewed demo mission that lands Starship on the lunar surface, said NASA.Ī $1.15 billion contract extension was awarded by NASA to SpaceX in November 2022 for a second iteration of the hardware for NASA’s Artemis IV, which is scheduled for for 2027. WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - A team led by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin won a coveted 3.4 billion NASA contract to build a spacecraft to fly astronauts to and from the moon's surface, the. Bill Nelson, 2 billion discount will get the agency to reconsider its single lunar lander contract. It will see the first humans descend to the surface of the Moon since 1972’s Apollo 17 mission, but crucially from NASA’s Orion spacecraft-and not Lunar gateway, which won’t exist. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is hoping a letter to NASA Admin. In April 2021 SpaceX was selected by NASA to build its Starship human landing system (HLS) for the final leg of the Artemis III mission, which is scheduled for 2025. Neither Bezos nor Nelson mentioned the timetable in today’s postings, but Blue Origin has a 3.4 billion NASA contract to make its crew-capable lunar lander available for Artemis moon missions. The company is actively working on building more rocket boosters to fly more frequently at the “very high” rate Bezos hopes for.SpaceX will provide the lunar lander for the first lunar surface expedition of the 21st century. Yet its high profile means it has a powerful and widespread influence over the space industry, with investors often pointing to astronaut flights as driving excitement about the broader consequences of the extraterrestrial marketplace.īlue Origin has sold nearly $100 million worth of tickets for future passenger flights to the edge of space, Bezos said last week. The Government Accountability Office said a 2. The tourism market is just one component of a space economy valued no less than $420 billion. Bezos’ Rocket Company Loses Challenge to NASA SpaceX Moon Contract. Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which also recently completed a crewed flight, has historically sold seats on its flights between $200,000 and $250,000 per ticket. Jeff Bezos space company remains on the offensive in criticizing NASAs decision to award Elon Musks SpaceX with the only astronaut lunar lander contract. Right now, Bezos and fellow billionaire Richard Branson are the only two major entrepreneurs in the market of launching tourists to the edge of space. He and his fellow passengers floated in microgravity for a couple of minutes before their capsule returned and landed after 10 minutes and 10 seconds. space agency awards his company Blue Origin a contract to make. “Without competition, a short time into the contract, NASA will find itself with limited options as it attempts to negotiate missed deadlines, design changes, and cost overruns.”īezos, the founder and executive chair of Amazon, launched into space earlier this month with a ride on the first crewed New Shepard rocket flight, a project of his Blue Origin company. Fresh off his trip to space, billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos on Monday offered to cover up to 2 billion in NASA costs if the U.S. “Instead of this single source approach, NASA should embrace its original strategy of competition,” Bezos said. Before selecting the winner of the contest, NASA gave 10-month study contracts to SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics to begin work on lunar landers. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos offered to cover up to 2 billion of NASA costs in exchange for a contract to build a lunar lander to land astronauts on the moon. NASA in April awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX with a sole $2.89 billion contract to build the next crewed lunar lander under its Human Landing Systems program.
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