During an event at NASA Headquarters today, Administrator Bill Nelson announced the company will work with Blue Origin to build the next lunar lander. Other companies will also take part, which include Boeing, Draper, SpaceX, and Lockheed Martin.
The lunar lander will be apart of the Artemis mission program, which starts at the end of the decade. The lander will be called ” Blue Moon “, and will transport astronauts to the moon’s surface.
The contract between all these companies is priced at around $3.4 billion. According to John Couluris, who works at Blue Origin, they plan to invest “well north” of that money into Blue Moon.
When the project is finished, Blue Moon will stand 16 meters tall, and a mass of 16 metric tons. The craft is expected to have a demonstration landing on Artemis 5, scheduled for no earlier than 2029. They also plan on having an uncrewed test flight in 2028.
Article Source: SpaceNews (Image: Blue Origin)