NASA chooses a Jeff Bezos ship to take its astronauts to the Moon

Jeff Bezos is used to getting what he wants and although the Moon had resisted him until now, he has finally managed to make his name go down in the history of the space race as part of Artemis, the program to return to our satellite.

NASA has awarded Bezos's aerospace company, Blue Origin, the contract to develop a second lunar module that will carry its astronauts to the satellite from Artemis 5. Bezos's company will build a lunar module, called Blue Moon, in alliance with the veterans Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper and Astrobotic under the name National Team.

With this same module, Bezos attended NASA's first call in 2019 to build the module that will carry the astronauts of the Artemis 3 mission, the first to transport humans to the Moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972.. The three finalists for the contest were SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics, and although the initial plan was to choose two companies, for budgetary reasons, it was decided that only one contract would be awarded.

To Bezos' chagrin, the winner of that first contest was Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, who managed to get NASA to choose his Lunar Starship module in April 2021 (a version of the same ship that Elon Musk tested in Texas a few weeks ago for first time next to the Super Heavy rocket. Despite the fact that it managed to take off and fly for a couple of minutes, at the time of undocking the ship could not separate from the rocket and exploded.. Although it was a trial test and Musk has not considered it a failure, it is likely that the development of the Starship module that NASA needs for the Artemis 3 mission, in which the first woman and the first black person to go to Earth will travel, will be delayed. step on our satellite.

Jeff Bezos appealed the choice of his rival's module, but after a long legal process, the courts agreed with NASA and it was confirmed that SpaceX would manufacture the module for Artemis 3, which will not be launched before 2025..

Given that one of the reasons why NASA chose SpaceX, in addition to the contracts for the Dragon ships that it already had with this company, was that its proposal was cheaper (its cost was 2.9 billion dollars compared to 5,900 million from the Blue Origin consortium), Bezos went so far as to propose putting money out of his own pocket if the space agency also chose his Blue Moon.

To Bezos's relief, last September, NASA called a new contest to develop a second module that would serve its astronauts on future Artemis missions, which his company has managed to win.. Their opponents this time were Dynetics, again, and Northrop Grumman.

A mission for 2029

The contract, for a total of 3.4 billion dollars, will finance the design, development and testing of the Blue Moon lunar landing module so that it meets the requirements that NASA demands to travel to the Moon and dock with the future Lunar Orbital Station Gateway, in whose construction the European Space Agency (ESA) actively participates. The contract includes an unmanned test mission to the lunar surface, to be followed by another manned mission, Artemis 5, in 2029..

Bezos's company will also have to put money out of pocket to develop this spacecraft.

The plan for Artemis 5 is for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, successfully tested last fall during the Artemis 1 unmanned test mission, to launch the Orion spacecraft with four astronauts aboard to the Moon.. The Orion spacecraft would dock with the Gateway orbital station. Two of the astronauts would then enter the Blue Moon lunar module for a week-long journey to the Moon's South Pole, during which they would explore its surface and conduct experiments..

If all goes according to plan, Elon Musk's module will star in the Artemis 3 and 4 missions, and Jeff Bezos' Artemis 5, starting in 2029.

SpaceX's Starship lunar module for the Artemis 3 SPACEX mission

“Today we are pleased to announce that Blue Origin will build a human landing system as NASA's second supplier to deliver the Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface,” NASA Director Bill Nelson said in a statement.. The top leader of NASA considers that “we are in a golden age of manned spaceflight, which is possible thanks to NASA's commercial and international partnerships. Together, we are making an investment in the infrastructure that will pave the way for the first astronauts to reach Mars.”

“Having two different lunar landing designs, with different approaches to how to meet NASA's mission needs, provides more robustness and ensures a regular cadence of Moon landings,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager. of the Human Landing System Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

In his view, “this competitive approach drives innovation, drives down costs” to “increase business opportunities that can serve other customers and foster a lunar economy.”