It’s up to SpaceX and Blue Origin to stick the moon landing

NASA entrusts SpaceX and Blue Origin with lunar landers for Artemis III, aiming for humanity's first moon return since 1972. | Contesto: cronaca

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• It’s up to SpaceX and Blue Origin to stick the moon landing

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NASA is placing its bets on SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop lunar landers for the Artemis III mission, scheduled for next year, marking the first crewed moon landing since 1972. The agency announced that both private space companies will design and build separate landing systems capable of transporting astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface, a critical component of the broader Artemis program. This dual-track approach aims to ensure redundancy and competition, but it also places immense pressure on two firms with contrasting track records and technical approaches. The decision effectively hands the success of America’s return to the moon to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. SpaceX, which won an earlier $2.9 billion contract for the first Artemis lander, has proposed a version of its Starship spacecraft—a towering, fully reusable vehicle that has yet to complete an uncrewed orbital test. Blue Origin, which lost a legal challenge against that initial award, will now receive funding for its Blue Moon lander, a more conventional design that the company says builds on decades of NASA expertise. Neither vehicle has flown in space, making the 2025 timeline extremely ambitious. The stakes extend beyond national prestige. NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon, has faced repeated delays and budget overruns. The lander contracts represent the most technically challenging element of the mission: safely delivering astronauts to the lunar surface and returning them to orbit. Any failure by SpaceX or Blue Origin could push the landing date beyond 2025, potentially jeopardizing political support and international partnerships, including the Artemis Accords signed by more than 30 countries. Industry analysts note that the dual-source strategy mirrors NASA’s approach to commercial crew and cargo programs, which ultimately reduced costs and improved reliability. However, the moon lander effort carries higher risk because of the extreme environment and the need for precision landing near the lunar south pole, where water ice is believed to exist. Both companies must demonstrate their systems can handle the...

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Categoria: cronaca