NASA announces second Artemis lander to compete with SpaceX
As part of its Artemis program, NASA announced plans to fund a second lunar lander alongside SpaceX’s Starship HLS.
Expand Expanding CloseAs part of its Artemis program, NASA announced plans to fund a second lunar lander alongside SpaceX’s Starship HLS.
Expand Expanding CloseStarship HLS work is underway, booster stacking continued, and a potential payload dispenser was installed as another busy week at Starbase comes to a close.
Expand Expanding CloseOn February 10, SpaceX‘s Chief Engineer Elon Musk gave us an update on the company’s Starship launch vehicle. While it was light on brand new details, we still got some news. Below are our key takeaways from the event.
Expand Expanding CloseTonight Elon Musk will update us on the current progress of SpaceX’s Starship development. The last time this happened was in 2019, just after the first Starhopper flight.
Expand Expanding CloseThis Thursday, Elon Musk will finally update the world on what SpaceX has been doing down there in South Texas. Below is what we expect Elon Musk to talk about when he takes the stage.
Expand Expanding CloseThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today that the Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment has been delayed until February 28, 2022. This places the orbital launch attempt in March 2022 at the earliest.
Expand Expanding CloseWhile the report is focused on the management of NASA’s Artemis program missions, the report revealed a lot about SpaceX’s Starship timeline, Including the long-awaited Starship Orbital Flight Test to take place in Q2 of Fiscal Year 2022.
Updated to reflect the date is for the fiscal year of 2022, not the calendar year 2022. Fiscal years are one quarter ahead of the calendar year.
Expand Expanding CloseTuesday, NASA held a press conference to give an update on the agency’s Artemis program. During the conference, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced delays to the launches of Artemis II and III.
Expand Expanding CloseToday the federal judge overseeing the Blue Origin lawsuit against NASA and SpaceX made his decision. Blue Origin, of course, lost the lawsuit, but will this be the end?
Updated with statements from Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos.
Expand Expanding CloseIt has been a long time since we’ve seen engines test-fired in Starbase, but Thursday afternoon, SpaceX did not just one but two. These tests mark a significant milestone for Vacuum Raptor development.
Expand Expanding CloseA new bill proposed by Congress would give NASA more money for its Human Landing System program, but requires another landing contract.
Expand Expanding CloseA federal court released a redacted copy of Blue Origin’s lawsuit against NASA’s Human Landing System selection. In it, we get our first glimpse at what Blue Origin is basing this lawsuit over.
Expand Expanding CloseArtemis III landing on the Moon in 2024 has always been a lofty goal, but NASA officials stuck to the date even as the previous administration left. Today, they began to officially acknowledge the breakdown of the deadline.
Expand Expanding CloseSpaceX’s latest render of their Starship vehicle reflects many of the changes Elon has recently been talking about.
Expand Expanding CloseThis week, SpaceX has continued their work at Starbase, 34 more OneWeb satellites were launched into orbit, and SLS has gained its Orion mass simulator.
Expand Expanding CloseA few weeks back the US Government Accountability Office denied Blue Origin and Dynetic’s protest of NASA’s Human Landing System contract. Since then Blue Origin has been on a PR campaign to throw mud at the winner, SpaceX, and has started a lawsuit against NASA.
Expand Expanding CloseAfter a full week of immense progress toward SpaceX’s first orbital Starship vehicles. The SpaceX teams down at Starbase finally stacked their first Starship launch vehicle.
Expand Expanding CloseSpaceX continues to push hard towards the first stack of a Starship and Super Heavy vehicle. Super Heavy Booster 4 is currently positioned on the launch pad and SpaceX is working towards the stacking of Starship 20 as soon as today.
Expand Expanding CloseWe haven’t received a formal update on Starship’s development since the 2019 event in front of the Mk1 prototype. This week Elon Musk promised to give us one this year.
Expand Expanding CloseBack on April 16th, NASA announced that SpaceX would win the bid for Artemis’ Human Landing System contract. After a year-long competition, Blue Origin disagrees with the selection and hopes to get it changed.
Expand Expanding CloseAfter what seems to be a successful static fire Monday afternoon of the three Raptor engines. SpaceX is getting ready for another Starship flight of the upgraded SN15.
Expand Expanding CloseIn a special video conversation with space communicator Alex Orphanos, we discuss Tom Cruise going to the International Space Station, NASA’s three Human Landing System proposals for Artemis lunar missions, the upcoming SpaceX Demo-2 mission and NASA returning human spaceflight to the U.S., and much more.
Expand Expanding CloseNASA is returning astronauts to the Moon in this decade for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis program will see the first woman and next man walk on the Moon by 2024. The program will rely on NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, and Orion capsule for transporting astronauts from Earth to the Moon.
Artemis will also require a modern human landing system, or HLS, and today NASA announced which companies will be tasked with developing the new hardware.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics have been selected as commercial partners to design and develop NASA’s modern human landing system.
NASA outlines how each company’s proposal for new human landing systems:
Here’s how each Human Landing System proposal will work: