Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos, has submitted a bid on NASA’s Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development contract for the agency’s Artemis Mission.
The Huntsville, Alabama-based organization said Wednesday that it will pursue the award in collaboration with Northrop Grumman.
Commenting on the collaborative bid, Steve Cook, president of Leidos’ Dynetics Group, emphasized Northrop Grumman’s history of working in the space field, which includes being the sole company to have successfully built a crewed lunar lander.
“We will leverage their expertise and legacy of human space exploration, including their ongoing contracts to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost for NASA’s lunar Gateway and to provide commercial resupply services to the International Space Station, significantly bolstering our pursuit,” Cook said.
Dynetics has been a prime contractor for HLS for over three years. In 2019, the company was selected as one of eleven organizations to work under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration partnership Appendix E task order. It was also selected for the NextSTEP-2 Appendix H contract in 2020 with SpaceX and Blue Origin.
In 2021, the enterprise was one of five companies chosen under Appendix N, a program enabling industry organizations to work with NASA in maturing lander designs and performing risk reduction activities to aid in sustainable lander development.
Northrop Grumman also has a history of serving HLS and has been awarded prime contracts under Appendix E and Appendix H.
More recently, Northrop launched its seventh cargo flight as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract, an endeavor to deliver over 8,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station.
“Our capabilities and experience in pioneering human exploration and space logistics will help provide a lunar transportation system that our nation can rely on for years to come,” said Steve Krein, vice president of civil and commercial space at Northrop Grumman.