In a statement released on May 19, NASA said Blue Origin will design, test and develop a lander as part of the Artemis program, NASA's initiative to return humans to the Moon.
Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos introduces the lunar lander named Blue Moon at an event in Washington, US on May 9, 2019. Photo: Reuters
“Today, we are excited to announce that Blue Origin will build a human landing system as NASA’s second provider to take Artemis astronauts to the surface of the Moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
Bidding documents show that the proposal from Dynetics raised concerns about whether the Blue Origin competitor could meet technical requirements and that the price was “significantly higher” than Blue Origin.
Under the contract, the company of billionaire Jeff Bezos, who is also the boss of Amazon, is tasked with landing NASA astronauts on the Moon and then returning them to Earth.
Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX will be responsible for using the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft to transport astronauts and the aforementioned lander from Earth to lunar orbit.
Blue Origin will first conduct an unmanned flight to the Moon to demonstrate the capabilities of its lander, followed by a flight to send astronauts to Earth's only natural satellite.
Friday’s announcement was a long-awaited outcome for Mr. Bezos, who has invested billions of dollars in Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX, which dominates satellite launches and sending humans into space.
Mai Anh (according to NASA, Reuters)
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