SpaceX and Blue Origin developing cargo landers for NASA's missions to Moon

NASA is preparing to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon as part of its ambitious Artemis program. As part of this campaign, the agency's human landing system providers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, have already started developing lunar landers for large cargo deliveries to support these needs.

SpaceX and Blue Origin were selected by the agency to provide landing systems to carry humans to the Moon's surface, beginning with Artemis III. Additionally, the two companies have been asked to create cargo variants of their human landers, capable of delivering up to 15 metric tons of cargo, such as a pressurized rover, to the Moon's surface and be in service no earlier than the Artemis VII mission.

By leveraging the designs of their human landers, SpaceX and Blue Origin will create modified versions of these systems to accommodate non-life-support cargo, integrating payload interfaces and deployment mechanisms specific to cargo needs.

"It's essential that NASA has the capability to land not just astronauts, but large pieces of equipment, such as pressurized rovers, on the Moon for maximum return on science and exploration activities. Beginning this work now allows SpaceX and Blue Origin to leverage their respective human lander designs to provide cargo variants that NASA will need in the future," said Lisa Watson-Morgan, Human Landing System Program Manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

NASA's Artemis missions will help the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars and other destinations in our solar system.