NASA has awarded a contract modification to SpaceX to further develop its Starship human landing system to meet agency requirements for long-term human exploration of the Moon under Artemis.
With this addition, SpaceX will provide a second crewed
landing demonstration mission in 2027 as part of NASA’s Artemis IV mission.
“Returning astronauts to the Moon to learn, live, and work
is a bold endeavor. With multiple planned landers, from SpaceX and future
partners, NASA will be better positioned to accomplish the missions of
tomorrow: conducting more science on the surface of the Moon than ever before
and preparing for crewed missions to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Bill
Nelson.
Known as Option B, the modification follows an award to
SpaceX in July 2021 under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration
Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2) Appendix H Option A contract. NASA previously
announced plans to pursue this Option B with SpaceX. The contract modification
has a value of about $1.15 billion.
“Continuing our collaborative efforts with SpaceX through
Option B furthers our resilient plans for regular crewed transportation to the
lunar surface and establishing a long-term human presence under Artemis,” said
Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager for the Human Landing System program at NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “This critical work will
help us focus on the development of sustainable, service-based lunar landers
anchored to NASA’s requirements for regularly recurring missions to the lunar
surface.”
The aim of this new work under Option B is to develop and
demonstrate a Starship lunar lander that meets NASA’s sustaining requirements
for missions beyond Artemis III, including docking with Gateway, accommodating
four crew members, and delivering more mass to the surface.
NASA initially selected SpaceX to develop a human landing
system variant of Starship to land the next American astronauts on the Moon
under Artemis III, which will mark humanity’s first return to the lunar surface
in more than 50 years. As part of that contract, SpaceX will also conduct an
uncrewed demonstration mission to the Moon prior to Artemis III.
The agency is pursuing two parallel paths for human lunar
landers developed according to NASA’s sustained requirements to increase the
competitive pool of capable industry providers – the existing contract with
SpaceX and another solicitation released earlier this year. The other
solicitation, NextSTEP-2 Appendix P, is open to all other U.S. companies to
develop additional human landing system capabilities and includes uncrewed and
crewed demonstration missions from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon.
Astronaut Moon landers are a vital part of NASA’s deep space
exploration plans, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft,
ground systems, spacesuits and rovers, and Gateway.
Under Artemis, NASA
will send a suite of new lunar science instruments and technology
demonstrations to study the Moon, land the first woman and first person of
color on the lunar surface, establish a long term lunar presence, and more. The
agency will leverage its Artemis experiences and technologies to prepare for
the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.