NASA picks SpaceX to build lunar lander
The SpaceX spacecraft being developed and tested in South Texas will lower astronauts to the surface of the moon, NASA announced Friday.
SpaceX was one of three companies — Blue Origin and Dynetics are the others — vying to build a human landing system for NASA. For the past year, NASA personnel worked with these companies to refine their lander concepts.
The SpaceX Starship vehicle, which has prototypes launching (and crashing) outside of Brownsville, was selected to lower the next two NASA astronauts to the moon.
“We are humbled to help @NASAArtemis usher in a new era of human space exploration,” SpaceX said on Twitter.
NASA said it was looking for an innovative, reliable and cost ef
fective system. Cost was important because NASA didn’t receive its desired level of funding for the human landing system. In its current budget, NASA received $850 million for this system. Former President Donald Trump had requested $3.4 billion.
The company’s track record likely gave it an edge on the competition. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
“It is about experience. The company has conducted over 100 successful orbital launches with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, many successful cargo missions to ISS and 2 successful crew missions to ISS,” Phil Smith, a space industry analyst at analytics and engineering firm BryceTech, said in an email. “This type of track record bodes well for a company vying to provide an additional service that leverages this experience. The health of the company is also good, with revenue being generated and an apparent robust launch backlog.”
But the Starship spacecraft is still under development. It’s undergoing a fast-paced cadence of flying, crashing, adjusting and then flying again. SpaceX has conducted four high-altitude Starship flights since December. Only one of those vehicles landed upright. And then it, too, exploded after sitting on the landing pad for several minutes.
The rocket needed to launch Starship, called the Super Heavy, is also under development. Smith said the company’s focus regarding the human landing system has largely been on Starship, and he wasn’t sure how far along SpaceX is in developing the Super Heavy rocket.
“I imagine this award will generate much more attention to the system, with deeper questions asked and updates requested,” he said.
The contract announced Friday was for $2.89 billion. It covers two lunar landings: a test flight to the surface without crew followed by a trip carrying astronauts. SpaceX will own the vehicle, as it owns the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, and NASA will pay to use it as a customer.
“We awarded the SpaceX contract given the appropriation we have and what we believe are realistic budgets in future years,” said Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator.
A goal in this contract is to land on the moon as soon as 2024, though many believe that date is unrealistic. In a call with media, NASA leaders promised to keep people updated on whether SpaceX was on track for that goal.
Ultimately, the system will fly when it’s safe, said Kathy Lueders, head of human spaceflight. She definitely wants to see that happen this decade.
“We would really like to have human landers at the end of the ’20s,” she said.
Not everyone in Congress was pleased with Friday’s announcement. Democratic U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said she was “disappointed” that this decision was made before NASA received its new permanent administrator.
“The decision to make the award today also comes despite the obvious need for a re-baselining of NASA’s lunar exploration program, which has no realistic chance of returning U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2024,” the congresswoman said in a statement. “While work continues on the upcoming Artemis-1 mission, it will be critically important for the new NASA leadership team to carry out its own review of all elements of NASA’s Moon-Mars initiative to ensure that this major national undertaking is put on a sound footing.”
A Senate hearing is scheduled next week for former Sen. Bill Nelson, whom President Joe Biden nominated to be the next NASA administrator. Greg Autry, a clinical professor of space leadership, policy and business for Arizona State University, said Friday’s announcement will “unexpectedly complicate” Nelson’s hearing. He will likely be cornered by senators in states that have an interest in SpaceX or in the other systems that were rejected, such as Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, who has the Blue Origin headquarters in her state.
Nelson will have to “defend it, oppose it or duck,” Autry said in an email. “He would have seemingly had a straightforward hearing and vote before this.”
The human landing system is part of NASA’s Artemis program seeking to return astronauts to the moon. On the program’s first lunar landing, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will launch four astronauts onboard the Orion spacecraft. Separately, SpaceX will launch its Super Heavy rocket and uncrewed Starship.
Two of the four crew members would transfer to the Starship and then be lowered to the moon. They would spend about a week exploring the moon’s surface before returning to Orion.
The Artemis program is looking to create a sustained human presence on the moon. As such, NASA said it would have “a competitive procurement for sustainable crewed lunar surface transportation services” that it’s opening to industry for subsequent landers after SpaceX delivers NASA’s first crew to the moon.
Blue Origin, which partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper for its lander, said the team “doesn’t have very much information yet” and is “looking to learn more about the selection.” Dynetics, a company that has worked with NASA for decades and was acquired by Leidos Holdings last year, was partnering with more than 25 contractors for its lander. It did not respond to email requests for comment.
“When NASA returns to the moon with the Artemis program, it will go in a way that reflects the world today,” Lueders said, “with government, industry, international partners in a global effort to build and test the systems needed for challenging missions to Mars and beyond.”