Highlights:
- NASA has selected three U.S. companies to design and develop human landing systems (HLS) for the agency’s Artemis program.
- Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, is developing the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV) – a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system.
- The space agency announces that it has awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a version of the Starship rocket that can land people on the moon.
- SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is developing the Starship – a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket.
Introduction:
NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon, the space agency today announced that SpaceX will build the vehicle that will land astronauts on the lunar surface. The current plan, known as Artemis, calls for astronauts to launch on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, fly to lunar orbit on the space agency’s Orion space capsule, and then transfer to SpaceX’s Starship rocket to make the final descent to the surface.
The contract, worth $2.9 billion, will go toward developing a moon-ready version of the Starship rocket. The futuristic-looking vehicle is still in the prototype stage, with testing ongoing at a Texas facility. SpaceX beat out proposals from Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin—which has been working with defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper—and Dynetics, a defense contractor based in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA announces that SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics made up the entirety of its field of approved vendors for bidding on the HLS contracts back in April last year. Since then, both Blue Origin (which bid alongside a “national team” that included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper) and Dynetics have built full-scale models of their system and submitted proposals detailing their plans for the functional versions to NASA for consideration.
NASA’s Artemis program
Announced in 2017 under the Trump administration and named in 2019, the Artemis program aims to return U.S. astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, including landing the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.
The Artemis I mission will be an uncrewed test flight of Orion and SLS. It will launch no sooner than late 2021. Artemis II will follow, using SLS and Orion to fly a crew around the moon and back but not land, similar to 1968’s Apollo 8 mission. Then Artemis III will use SLS, Orion, and SpaceX’s Starship to complete the journey to the moon’s surface.
SpaceX’s Starship
Starship is a heavy-lift rocket that is currently under development at SpaceX. The full rocket will consist of two pieces. One, a 230-foot-tall booster called Super Heavy. Another will be a 165-foot-tall upper stage called Starship. (Together, the booster and upper stage of the rocket are popular as Starship). In a departure from past launch vehicles, the goal is to build a rocket that can launch and land itself.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket has a booster stage. This can work out with the feat. It is a rocket that NASA uses to fly astronauts to ISS (International Space Station). Also, the rocket is available for multiple uses.
During missions to the moon, the Super Heavy booster will help launch Starship off Earth. And on its way to lunar orbit, the upper part of the rocket will wait. They will halt to ferry astronauts to the surface using its own engines.
Other companies were competing to build NASA’s lunar lander.
SpaceX was one of three teams competing to win NASA’s contract, including the team organized by Blue Origin, and the separate design from Dynetics.
Perhaps the single biggest surprise from NASA’s announcement is that NASA chose to go with just SpaceX. SpaceX was the first choice out of the three options. Typically, NASA selects contractors in pairs so that the space agency has two options for spacecraft in critical missions. This is how it can continue with a given program if one of the contractors fails to deliver.
NASA’s Commercial Cargo Program, which sends supplies to the ISS, works with both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman. The space agency’s Commercial Crew Program has contracted with both SpaceX and Boeing.
