spacetoday.net: Thales Alenia Space wins contract for ESA lunar lander

Posted: Sat, Feb 1, 2025, 9:39 AM ET (1439 GMT)
Thales Alenia Space has won an ESA contract to develop a key element of a European cargo lunar lander. Thales said Thursday the contract, worth nearly $900 million, includes work to develop and deliver the Lunar Descent Element (LDE) for the Argonaut lander. The contract includes mission design and integration of the LDE, which would be responsible for transporting and landing the spacecraft on the Moon. Thales said Argonaut's first mission in the 2030s is expected to deliver navigation and telecommunication payloads, along with an energy generation and storage system, supporting commercial European exploration of the lunar south pole. ESA is also positioning Argonaut, which has a capacity of approximately two metric tons of cargo, as a potential asset for future NASA Artemis lunar missions.