NASA plans to use cargo versions of the landing vehicles being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX to deliver supplies to the Moon. In the early 2030s, they would have to land a pressurized rover and a habitable compartment on its South Pole.
The official announcement of such plans was made on November 19. This is the first award given to NASA since January, when the organization announced that it was commissioning the two companies to work on the cargo versions of their spacecraft that would be involved in the Artemis program.
According to NASA, Starship will have to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon no earlier than fiscal year 2032. It is being developed by Japan’s aerospace agency JAXA under an agreement signed in April. The Blue Moon spacecraft will deliver a compartment designed to accommodate astronauts. This mission will not take place until fiscal year 2033.
NASA has not disclosed the cost of upcoming cargo delivery contracts. The official statement said the organization would issue a request for proposals for two companies for these missions in early 2025. NASA has not explained any reason for announcing the planned awards months in advance. The Aerospace Administration also didn’t disclose why it selected each company for a specific cargo mission.
In January of this year, NASA announced that it had instructed SpaceX and Blue Origin to begin work on cargo versions of its HLS landing vehicles. They will be able to deliver at least 12 to 15 tons of cargo to the lunar surface, which is much more than the capabilities of the vehicles involved in the CLPS program. They involve private companies like Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic and Firefly delivering small demonstration payloads to the moon.
At that time, NASA stated that initial work on the cargo versions of Blue Moon and Starship would be conducted under existing grants awarded under the HLS program and would not require additional funding.
Earlier we told you that NASA could abandon the SLS super-heavy rocket.
Provided by Spacenews
