Amid a court battle over which tech heavyweight will build its lunar lander, NASA awarded a total of $146 million this week to five companies, including Blue Origin and SpaceX, to enable repeated crewed trips to the moon.
The fixed-price contracts are to create concept technologies to reduce risk and increase sustainability in human landing concepts, as well as help evaluate NASA’s procurement requirements for its Artemis program.
The awards come after Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin launched a legal battle against NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX in which it questioned NASA’s evaluation of the three proposals that were submitted for its lunar lander. NASA chose SpaceX to receive the $2.9 million contract for the final stage of the journey, which will take astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface.
After its protest with the Government Accountability Office over the decision was denied, Blue Origin filed a suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which has resulted in a temporary halt to the vehicle’s development while the parties prepare their arguments.
The most recent awards require the companies to consider mission needs like crew health and medical provisions and reach test milestones on critical components.
“Establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon through recurring services using lunar landers is a major Artemis goal,” Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s human spaceflight program, said in a news release. “This critical step lays the foundation for U.S. leadership in learning more about the Moon and for learning how to live and work in deep space for future missions farther into the solar system.”
Kent-based Blue Origin received $25.6 million, while Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, which has its satellite division in Redmond, received $9.4 million.
The largest award went to Alabama propulsion and small-satellite company Dynetics, at $40.8 million. Lockheed Martin, in Colorado, received $35.2 million and Virginia-based Northrup Grumman was granted $34.8 million.
The work will make the five companies a key part in shaping future procurements for regular lunar missions, NASA said.
"Collaboration with our partners is critical to achieving NASA’s long-term Artemis lunar exploration goals,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager of the agency’s Human Landing System program. “By partnering with innovative U.S. companies, we will establish a robust lunar economy while exploring new areas of the Moon for generations to come.”
On Sept. 15, the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission launched the first all-civilian mission into space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, a pilot, led the team, which included physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux as medical officer, as well as aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski and pilot and geoscientist Sian Proctor. The team is expected to return Sept. 18 after three days in orbit, SpaceX said.
