NASA is keeping its foot on the gas for the space agency's Artemis program, announcing plans to assign demonstration missions for the two vehicles it has picked to land astronauts on the moon.
Both SpaceX and Blue Origin were awarded contracts for NASA's Human Landing System, and have been in the process of designing their respective vehicles for returning astronauts to the surface of the moon. Now, NASA has given both companies a heads-up to expect to put those designs to the test in some upcoming qualification missions that will task them with sending large cargo to the moon.
The mission assignments follow a 2023 request from NASA, which also directed SpaceX and Blue Origin to build cargo variants of their lunar landers, the space agency indicated in a statement. Having two different lunar landing systems to choose from will give NASA flexibility for both crew and cargo missions, while also "ensuring a regular cadence of moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity,” said Stephen D. Creech, NASA's assistant deputy associate administrator for technical at the agency's Moon to Mars Program Office.
Poster Comment:
NASA can't do anything as well as SpaceX.