This marked the second tourist flight to space this month: on 11 July, Richard Branson visited the edge of space aboard a Virgin Galactic flight, narrowly beating Bezos to become the first person to fly on a spacecraft made by their own company. The flight lasted around 11 minutes, including about 3 minutes of weightlessness at the peak of its trajectory, and reached a top altitude of 107 kilometres. The craft is fully autonomous, so the crew didn’t need to do anything but enjoy the ride. The New Shepard rocket has completed 15 test flights, but this flight was the first to carry passengers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Read more: More people are going to space, but diversity is still grounded Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, In response, NASA announced a program for a second lander contract in early 2022. Their aim has been to compete for prominent commercial and government space contracts, particularly with SpaceX, a dominant player in satellite launches and human spaceflight.īlue Origin, along with lawmakers, exerted pressure on NASA to award a second lunar lander contract to promote commercial competition and ensure the agency has alternative means to reach the Moon. This contract is a significant achievement for Bezos and Blue Origin, as it validates their extensive investments since the company’s establishment in 2000. During the surface phase of the mission, the Artemis astronauts will also transport an unpressurized lunar rover, as indicated by NASA’s “working manifest” chart. The human landing system will be used for both Artemis III and Artemis IV.Īs outlined in NASA’s budget proposal from March, the mission involves delivering the European Space Agency’s ESPRIT refuelling and communications module to NASA’s Gateway, along with a Canadian-made robotic arm system. On the other hand, NASA selected SpaceX to develop the first commercial human lander to safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface, as part of the Artemis III mission. It will be the first Artemis mission to utilize NASA’s proposed orbital Lunar Gateway in conjunction with a landing on the Moon’s surface. While Blue Origin has been relatively discreet about the specifics of its Moon lander proposal, it has mentioned its corporate partners, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper (a spacecraft software firm), and Astrobotic (a robotics firm), as part of Artemis V mission.Īlso read: SpaceX says they intentionally blew up their Starship rocket during launch, calls launch a successĮlon Musk’s NASA Artemis missions, utilizing SpaceX’s Starship system, are planned for later in the decade, with Blue Origin’s missions currently scheduled for 2029, shortly after.īlue Origin’s Artemis V mission aims to deploy astronauts to the lunar surface, specifically focusing on exploring the icy southern pole of the Moon. What will Blue Origin and SpaceX do for NASA’s Artemis mission? This demonstrates the long-standing commitment of Bezos and his team to establish a permanent outpost on the Moon. He emphasized that having multiple providers ensures redundancy and increased mission success.īlue Origin’s lunar lander head, John Couluris, revealed that the company had privately contributed an amount exceeding the $3.4 billion contract payout. While announcing Blue Origin’s contract, NASA’s chief administrator, Bill Nelson, expressed a positive outlook on the competition and stated that the agency welcomes more contenders in this space race.ĭuring a conference at NASA HQ in Washington, Jeff Bezos highlighted the significance of having backups and reliability in space missions. The objective of sending humans back to the Moon is to conduct research that will contribute to the eventual launch of similar missions to Mars. NASA emphasized that the upcoming missions will explore a greater expanse of the lunar surface than ever before. They subsequently filed a complaint and launched a lawsuit, both of which were ultimately dismissed by the Government Accountability Office and federal court, respectively.Īlso read: Up, up and away: As Blue Origin makes its sixth flight, how much does space tourism cost and will it ever be affordable? Bezos and Blue Origin had also vied for the contract but were unsuccessful. In 2021, Elon Musk’s SpaceX secured a $3 billion contract from NASA to facilitate human return to the Moon, marking the first such mission since 1972.
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