NASA wants SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop large cargo landers and deliver payloads to the Moon for the Artemis missions. The space agency said Tuesday that the companies will be awarded additional work under existing contracts to mature their designs for the cargo versions of SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s crewed human landing systems.
In a statement, Stephen D. Creech, assistant deputy associate administrator for technical at NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office, explained the mission benefits of having two lunar lander providers.
“The Artemis campaign is a collaborative effort with international and industry partners,” he shared. “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.”
Artemis Cargo Landers
While NASA revealed in 2023 that it selected Blue Origin and SpaceX to build crewed human landing systems—or HLS—it was not until January 2024 that the space agency mentioned that the companies were also working on the cargo landers.
In a media call on Jan. 9, Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, shared that the companies were “applying the work they’re doing on the human-rated versions of the landing vehicles to develop a cargo variant.”
NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton added in a statement to SpaceNews that work on the cargo landers was done under the HLS contracts awarded to Blue Origin in May 2023 and the “Option B” award SpaceX secured in November 2022.
In April, the agency further confirmed that the companies are creating the cargo variant of the landers and added that the spacecraft will need to be capable of delivering 26,000–33,000 pounds of payload on the Moon.
NASA already has plans for at least two missions to land large cargo on the lunar surface. The first mission will see the SpaceX Starship cargo lander carry the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s pressurized rover to the Moon as soon as fiscal 2032. Meanwhile, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon will transport a lunar habitat as soon as fiscal 2033.