NASA has announced the selection of Blue Origin, the space technology company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to build the human landing system for the Artemis V mission to the Moon.
A $3.4 billion contract was awarded to Blue Origin to create, develop, test, and validate its Blue Moon lander.
The lander will need to fulfill all the specifications set forth by the space agency for repeated manned landings on the moon, including docking with the Gateway space station that NASA intends to put into lunar orbit.
In addition to the lander’s design and development, the NASA contract also calls for a single unmanned lunar surface demonstration flight before astronauts use the lander on the Artemis V mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2029.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will launch four astronauts to lunar orbit as part of the Artemis V mission. The astronauts will be launched aboard the Orion spacecraft, which was tested along with the Space Launch System during the Artemis 1 mission.
