NASA has awarded $146 million in contracts to five companies to develop lunar lander design concepts, perform risk reduction activities and offer feedback to inform requirements for a future solicitation on industry capabilities that could help facilitate regular manned missions to the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program.
Blue Origin, Leidos’ (NYSE: LDOS) Dynetics subsidiary, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and SpaceX will evaluate their lander system concepts’ performance, safety, mission assurance and other capabilities and requirements over the next 15 months under the contracts awarded through the Appendix N broad agency announcement of the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 program, NASA said Wednesday.
“Establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon through recurring services using lunar landers is a major Artemis goal,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s human exploration and operations.
“This critical step lays the foundation for U.S. leadership in learning more about the Moon and for learning how to live and work in deep space for future missions farther into the solar system,” she added.
