Video Transcript
Private spaceflight company Blue Origin recently provided NASA officials and the general public with a look at a prototype lunar lander as the space agency continues preparations to return to the Moon.
Blue Origin, established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, originally announced a project to develop a flexible lunar lander — an initiative named “Blue Moon” — four years ago. On a recent visit to the company’s engine manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posed for some photos with a prototype of the Blue Moon Mark 1 with Bezos, then posted them to his social media account.
The lander, according to Space.com, is both taller and thinner than the design reflected in Blue Origin’s initial renderings of the craft. It will be able to deliver up to three tons of cargo to the lunar surface. Nelson wrote that it would help ensure a “steady cadence” of astronauts to the Moon as the agency builds toward journeys to Mars. No date has been set for the debut launch of the Mark 1.
A second-generation Blue Origin lander, named Mark 2, was selected earlier this year by NASA for its Artemis program. The company received a $3.4 billion contract to build the program’s second landing system. The first, SpaceX’s Starship, is scheduled to bring astronauts to the Moon during the Artemis 3 mission in 2025 — the first time humans will return to the lunar surface in more than a half-century.
