Human Landing Systems: Starship and Blue Moon
Who is building the vehicles that will put astronauts on the Moon, what has NASA paid, and how ready are they?
Chapter summary
NASA has two crewed landers under contract.
Key takeaways
- 1
SpaceX's Starship HLS won the first award in April 2021 ($2.89 billion), extended with a second mission in 2022 (about $1.15 billion more); Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK2 won a second-provider award in May 2023 ($3.4 billion, with the company saying it pays more than half the cost).
- 2
Both are huge, both are designed to be refuelled in orbit, and neither had flown to the Moon by October 2026.
- 3
NASA's October 2026 chart shows an uncrewed Starship landing in late 2027 and an uncrewed Blue Moon landing in the first quarter of 2028, with the crewed landing on Artemis IV in early 2028.
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A Crewed Landing Mission, Line by Line
Next →The Refuelling Problem: Why Lander Cost Hides in Tanker Flights
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