Washington (EFE).- NASA has chosen the Blue Origin aerospace company, owned by magnate Jeff Bezos, to develop a landing system that allows astronauts to be taken to the Moon under the Artemis mission.
It is the second contract that the US space agency awards to develop the technology that will allow humanity to set foot on the lunar surface again, after in 2021 it gave the first to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, valued at almost 3,000 million dollars ( almost 2,774 million euros).
Specifically, Blue Origin will develop a “human landing system” for the Artemis V mission that will allow two astronauts to travel from the orbit of the Moon to the surface of the satellite, where they will spend a week carrying out “scientific and exploration activities”, according to a NASA statement.
The SpaceX contract also included the development of a landing system, which will be used on the Artemis III and IV missions.
The US agency defended that having two different designs will give greater robustness and ensure a higher rate of trips to the Moon.
“Together, we are investing in the infrastructure that will pave the way to get the first astronauts to Mars,” explained NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Last April, the US space agency, together with the Canadian CSA, announced the members of the Artemis II mission, a woman and three men who will fly around the Moon in November 2024 in what will be the beginning of a new space age with Mars in sight.
The ten-day mission around the Moon will have Reid Wiseman as commander and Victor Glover as pilot, while astronaut Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen, the latter from the CSA, will serve as mission specialists.
NASA plans to send the first manned mission of the Artemis program to land on the satellite by 2025.
