As NASA returns humans to the lunar surface and establishes a long-term presence on our closest celestial neighbor, the agency and commercial human landing system providers Blue Origin and SpaceX have streamlined the designs and changed both concepts of operations for its future crewed landers.
Since NASA established initial contracts with Blue Origin and SpaceX for crewed missions to the Moon, the agency has redefined Artemis III to demonstrate rendezvous and docking capabilities between test versions of landers from each provider and the agency's Orion spacecraft in low Earth orbit next year. In parallel, the companies are also developing crew and cargo versions of their landers for near-term Artemis missions.
"We are executing President Trump's National Space Policy to complete the long-awaited return of American astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 and establish a Moon Base," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. "We have a proven foundation in SLS and Orion, along with two lunar landers in development with Blue Origin and SpaceX. But NASA has no intention of sitting idly by as all the pieces come together. That is not how Apollo succeeded, and it is not how the near-impossible is achieved. NASA is energized, our core capabilities are being rebuilt, our machine shops are running 24/7, and our experts are in the field attacking the critical path. We are building a Super Bowl-caliber team to safely achieve these objectives and everything that comes next."
