NASA is strengthening its lunar exploration capabilities by expanding existing contracts with SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop specialized cargo landers, marking a significant advancement in the agency's Artemis campaign for sustained lunar presence.
The space agency plans to assign demonstration missions to both companies following successful design certification reviews, building upon their 2023 request for cargo variants of their human landing systems currently being developed for the Artemis III, IV, and V missions.
"The Artemis campaign is a collaborative effort with international and industry partners," Stephen D. Creech, assistant deputy associate administrator for technical, Moon to Mars Program Office, said in a statement.
"Having two lunar lander providers with different approaches for crew and cargo landing capability provides mission flexibility while ensuring a regular cadence of moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity."
SpaceX, founded by Tesla CEO and the world's richest man, Elon Musk, conducted its sixth test of the Starship rocket on Tuesday. Starship is set to deliver astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis missions.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is preparing for another space tourism launch, scheduled for Friday.
Both companies are vying for top spots in the future of private space travel.
The agency has outlined plans for at least two major cargo delivery missions.
SpaceX's Starship cargo lander will transport a pressurized rover, currently being developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, to the lunar surface no earlier than fiscal year 2032 to support Artemis VII and subsequent missions.
Blue Origin is scheduled to deliver a lunar surface habitat no earlier than fiscal year 2033.
"Based on current design and development progress for both crew and cargo landers and the Artemis mission schedules for the crew lander versions, NASA assigned a pressurized rover mission for SpaceX and a lunar habitat delivery for Blue Origin," Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said in a statement.
"These large cargo lander demonstration missions aim to optimize our NASA and industry technical expertise, resources, and funding as we prepare for the future of deep space exploration."
These developments are part of NASA's broader Artemis campaign, which aims to travel to unexplored areas of the moon while developing capabilities for future Mars exploration.
The Artemis program is looking to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years in 2026.
The program has numerous components, including the development of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, designed to take astronauts to the moon, commercial human landing systems, next-generation spacesuits and a lunar space station.
Through these combined efforts, NASA and its partners are working to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon, while preparing for humanity's next giant leap to Mars.
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