Race to the Moon

In this buzz: Blue Origin, SpaceX Starship, NASA and a bit more…

Exciting news from NASA!
Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin has snagged a mind-blowing contract to develop a lunar lander for an upcoming moon mission in 2029. Blue Origin will be the ones responsible for safely delivering astronauts to the moon’s surface as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Talk about reaching for the stars!

This wasn’t an ordinary competition—
…it was the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) program, giving companies a second shot at winning the contract. In the first round, Elon Musk’s SpaceX claimed the victory in 2021. But NASA wanted to give others a chance, and guess what? Blue Origin seized the opportunity and emerged triumphant this time around!

Get ready for the dream team!
Blue Origin is teaming up with powerhouses like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics to make this lunar lander mission a roaring success. They surpassed a team led by Dynetics, a company owned by Leidos. We’re all eagerly waiting for the juicy details of the other proposals, but NASA is keeping it under wraps for now.

And a bit more…
In the first program called the Human Landing System (HLS), SpaceX scored a colossal $3 billion contract to develop their very own Starship rocket for Artemis missions. NASA initially planned to pick two winners, but due to budget constraints and SpaceX’s cost-effective bid, they settled on a single winner. It’s no secret that competition was fierce, but in the end, SpaceX emerged victorious with their out-of-this-world technology.

Talk about a cosmic adventure!
The Artemis program is sending shockwaves through the space exploration world. NASA completed their first Artemis mission in December, where they sent their Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on a lunar joyride—with no astronauts on board.

Blue Origin wasn’t too thrilled when SpaceX won the HLS contract without any competition. They decided to take matters to court, claiming NASA’s selection process was flawed. Although the lawsuit caused delays, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims eventually ruled in favor of NASA, affirming the validity of their decisions.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has made significant progress with its towering 400-foot-tall Starship rocket. They attempted their inaugural space mission in April and anticipate allocating approximately $2 billion this year for Starship development.

In addition to the initial contract, NASA awarded SpaceX an additional $1.15 billion for a second crewed demonstration landing. To date, NASA has paid SpaceX around $1.8 billion under the HLS contract.

Brace yourselves for epic journeys that will leave us starstruck!