The return of humans to the Moon continues to take shape. NASA has announced that Blue Origin will be in charge of developing the moon landing module for the Artemis V missionplanned for 2029. In this way, Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company joins Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which will develop the Starship-based ships that will take astronauts to the lunar surface on Artemis III and Artemis IV.
As reported by the US space agency, the amount of the contract awarded to Blue Origin is $3.4 billion. For its part, the firm belonging to the founder of Amazon has agreed to allocate an even larger sum to this project on its own.
The agreement between NASA and those of Jeff Bezos not only covers the development of the lunar landing module that will be used in Artemis V. The contract also includes an unmanned test lunar mission that will be carried out previously, to verify that all systems work correctly. For now, it has not been mentioned when this demonstration would take place, considering that the space launch schedule is usually quite changeable.
After all, Just because Artemis V is scheduled for 2029, doesn’t mean it can’t be delayed. Let’s not forget that the Artemis I mission could only be completed on its fifth attempt, due to several failed attempts due to technical problems or inclement weather. To which are added the more than 16 postponements suffered by the premiere of the impressive SLS rocket.
“On Artemis V, NASA’s SLS rocket will launch four astronauts into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft. Once Orion docks with Gateway, two astronauts will transfer to Blue Origin’s human moon landing system for a week-long trip to the South Pole region of the Moon, where they will carry out scientific and exploration activities,” NASA explained in its announcement.
Blue Origin will develop a second lunar landing module for Artemis missions
According to NASA, Blue Origin’s moon landing module must meet the same sustainability requirements that were established for SpaceX’s. These include the possibility of accommodating a larger crew, as well as being able to transport larger payloads to the Moon and support larger missions.
With their choice for Artemis V, those of Jeff Bezos achieve an important objective. Let’s not forget that, at the time, Blue Origin was very critical of the decision to choose SpaceX as the sole contractor for the development and manufacture of the first lunar lander for the Artemis missions. To the point that the company filed a lawsuit against NASA for this determination, which was later dismissed by a judge.
All this happened at a time of very strong rivalry between the two aerospace companies and their top executives, who used to throw public darts at each other quite regularly. “You can’t make your way to Luna with lawsuits. It doesn’t matter how good your lawyers are.”Elon Musk said at the time about Jeff Bezos.
It is evident that Blue Origin has achieved its mission of being part of humanity’s return to the Moon. Now he will have to show that he is up to the task.
The Artemis Calendar
With Artemis I now complete, NASA’s space launch schedule for the next few years is very exciting. The closest thing to do is Artemis II, whose crew has already been announced. If there are no problems, this mission will be in charge of orbiting the Moon in mid-2024.
For his part, artemis iiiwhich is betting on being the first to put astronauts on the lunar surface, will take place in 2025. If completed, it will mark the return to Earth’s natural satellite since Apollo 17 in 1972, using a module based on SpaceX’s Starship .
This will follow Artemis IVwhich will be the first to dock with Gateway, a small space station that will orbit the Moon and whose first modules will be launched in 2024. Then it will be the turn of Artemis Vwhere the Blue Origin moon landing module will have its long-awaited debut.