NASA is looking for suggestions from the private sector for a new astronaut moon lander. By the end of the 2020s, the space agency hopes to establish a permanent human presence on and around the moon through the Artemis program. For the Artemis 3 mission, which is slated to land close to the lunar south pole in 2025 or 2026, NASA announced in 2021 that it had chosen SpaceX’s Starship as the lander.
Agency representatives stated in March of this year that they intended to promote the creation of a second crewed lander for Artemis in order to provide redundancy and resilience for the project. On Sept. 16, NASA released a request for proposals from private companies, making that plan official.
According to Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, “work done under this solicitation, in addition to current lander development and studies taking place, will help build the foundation for long-term deep space exploration” (opens in new tab).
By working together with American businesses, Watson-Morgan explained, “we can now take advantage of NASA’s knowledge and expertise to encourage technological innovations for a sustained presence at the moon.”
Before releasing the final call today, NASA released a draft of the new solicitation on March 31 and hosted a virtual “industry day” about it in April, according to agency officials. The deadline for proposals is November 15 of this year. Two demonstration flights—one crewed and one uncrewed—to the lunar surface must be made by the companies chosen for the contract.
Similar specifications are included in the contract SpaceX already has with NASA; the crewed test flight is a component of the Artemis 3 mission.
NASA wants Starship to be a long-term participant in the Artemis program even though it appears that SpaceX won’t be permitted to submit a bid for the new contract. NASA officials announced today that they intend to exercise an option under the terms of their current contract with SpaceX, requesting that the company modify the design of its Artemis 3 Starship “to meet an extended set of requirements for sustaining missions at the moon and conduct another crewed demonstration landing.”
Within a few days, the Artemis program could gain significant traction. NASA is preparing for Artemis 1, the program’s first test flight, which will launch an Orion spacecraft on an unmanned journey to lunar orbit and back using a Space Launch System rocket.
Technical difficulties caused Artemis 1’s planned launch on August 29 to be postponed multiple times. The agency currently plans to launch on September 27.
