NASA to name second company to build astronaut lunar lander
The Hindu
Blue Origin and lawmakers had put pressure on NASA to contract for a second lunar lander in order to encourage commercial competition and guarantee that the organisation had a backup way to the moon.
U.S. space officials are set on May 19 to reveal a second company that would build a spacecraft to send astronauts to and from the Moon's surface, capping a high-stakes contest between groups that include Jeff Bezos' space firm Blue Origin and defense company Northrop Grumman.
NASA's decision will give the agency a second ride to the Moon under its Artemis program after it awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX $3 billion in 2021 to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
Those initial missions using SpaceX's Starship system are slated for later this decade.
Friday's announcement in Washington evokes deja vu for Amazon.com founder Bezos and defence contractor Dynetics Inc, the head of a partnership with Northrop Grumman.
Those companies lost out to SpaceX for the 2021 contract, part of an initial moon lander procurement program. NASA under that program said it could pick up to two companies, but blamed budget constraints for only going with SpaceX.
This new contract offers a second chance for Bezos, who since founding Blue Origin in 2000 has invested billions into the company to compete for high-profile commercial and government space contracts with SpaceX, a dominant force in satellite launches and human spaceflight.
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