Strip District firm can bid on mission to the moon

Astrobotic Technology, a Strip Districtbased lunar logistics and delivery startup, is among nine companies NASA has selected to bid for contracts to carry science experiements to the moon.

Astrobotic, which was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2007, transports hardware systems into space for companies, governments and universities.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services contracts will have a combined maximum value of $2.6 billion during the next 10 years, the space agency said. The first such missions could be launched next year.

The companies will be responsible for developing robotic lunar landers to deliver the payloads safely to the surface of the moon and will need to arrange launch services for the missions.

The program is part of NASA’s effort to buy services from commercial companies, rather than relying on its own developed capabilities.

Other companies invited to compete are: Deep Space Systems of Littleton, Colo.; Draper of Cambridge, Mass.; Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas; Intuitive Machines of Houston; Lockheed Martin’s space division in Littleton; Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif.; Moon Express of Cape Canaveral, Fla.; and Orbit Beyond of Edison, N.J.

Additional companies could be added later to this list, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, during a Thursday news conference.

None of the companies have been awarded funding yet, and NASA said it has not provided development funding. The minimum award each of the companies could win is $25,000, NASA said.

Other examples of contracted services include the launches NASA buys from SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Corp. to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.