On Friday, NASA signed a contract with Blue Origin. provide a lunar lander Artemis V’s lunar mission is scheduled for 2029, two years later. lost the bid to produce similar vehicles for Artemis III and IV missions.
Blue Origin will lead a consortium that also includes Lockheed Martin and Boeing to design and build the lander, with NASA funding $3.4 billion.according to new york timesBlue Origin’s vice president of lunar transportation also confirmed that the company would add “fairly north” to its numbers to the project.
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“We are in the golden age of human spaceflight, made possible by NASA’s commercial and international partnerships,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Friday. “Together, we are investing in the infrastructure that paves the way for the first astronauts to land on Mars.”
Now comes the hard part. Blue Origin will soon begin designing, manufacturing, and testing a new lander that meets NASA’s mission requirements, including docking capabilities. gateway, a planned space station that will transfer its crew to lunar orbit. The deal includes both an unmanned moon landing demonstration and a manned Artemis V mission scheduled for 2029.
2021, Blue Origin and one more company lost to space x We signed a contract to supply vehicles to Artemis III and IV, which aim to return mankind to the moon for the first time in more than half a century. SpaceX submitted a proposal estimated at $2.9 billion, while Blue Origin put it at $6 billion.
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After Blue Origin tried to sue NASA sued in federal court over the bidding process, claiming the proposal was unfairly valued.a 76 page report Later, a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained all the reasons why NASA had every legal right to choose to contract with SpaceX, and that the costs were paid by Blue Origin. It was about half of the proposed $6 billion. Other NASA concerns included the fact that Blue Origin’s proposed vehicle reportedly did not include proper safeguards for landing in the dark.As business insider “GAO argued at the time that NASA didn’t need to reveal all the details, and that Blue Origin should take into account the conditions of the moon and the universe itself, which is dark,” he said.
Jeff Bezos’ company ultimately lost the legal battle. “It was not the decision we wanted.” Bezos tweeted He then added that while he respects the court’s ruling, he wishes “complete contractual success for NASA and SpaceX.” But he said two years later, Blue Origin seems to have revised the proposal process appropriately. Include a plan to land in the dark if possible.