![]() ![]() ![]() Starship will be able to dock with the Orion capsule and the lunar Gateway and will be launched atop the company's reusable Raptor engine-powered Super Heavy rocket. It will be equipped with two airlocks and, as shown in the above image, an elevator that will lower and lift astronauts onto the Lunar surface.Īccording to the press release, SpaceX intends to send up several Starship spacecraft, including one filled with propellant into low-Earth orbit to support the human-rated spacecraft. The company will adapt the spacecraft's roomy interior-primarily developed to carry cargo-to house a crew of astronauts. SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Falcon Heavy rocket are designed to carry humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond. In October, SpaceX COO Glynn Shotwell told reporters that the company would adapt their Starship spacecraft and Falcon Heavy rocket to support the mission-and that's exactly what they did. SpaceXįor the past few months, SpaceX had been tight-lipped about designs for a potential human landing system. SpaceXĪn Artist’s concept of Starship on the lunar surface. Northrop Grumman will be in charge of developing a transfer element similar to its Cygnus cargo module and Draper will handle guidance, navigation and control, avionics and software systems for spacecraft, according to the press release.Įach of these elements, according to the statement, can be launched together or separately atop both available commercial rockets-including the company's New Glenn rocket and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket- as well as NASA's SLS rocket.īlue Origin's National Team, according to Watson-Morgan, will conduct an uncrewed lunar landing test of their descent module prior to the crewed mission. Lockheed Martin will develop an "ascent element," including a crew capsule similar to the Orion capsule. Blue Origin is designing the lander but also the BE-7 engines-filled with a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen-that will power the spacecraft. Blue Originīlue Origin tapped Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper-all veteran developers of spaceflight tech-to aid the Jeff Bezos-run company in developing its three-stage lunar landing system called the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV). Here's a bit about the award winners and their designs:Īn artist’s concept of Blue Origin’s lander on the lunar surface. "That achieves the innovation and the dissimilar redundancy of approaches that we wanted. "We have three notably different architectures, from a one stage, a two-stage and a three stage architecture," Watson-Morgan said during the teleconference. The teams each have ten months to refine their concepts, at which point NASA will decide whether or not to downselect to two teams to move with development and testing. ![]() Now, it's off the races for these three teams. $579 million was awarded to Blue Origin, $253 million to Dynetics, and $135 million to Spacex. In total, NASA awarded $967 million to the three contractors to refine their designs during the 10-month-long period. "This is the last piece that we need in order to get to the moon, and now we’re going to have that piece." "The one thing that we have not had as an agency under development is a human landing system," Bridenstine said during the teleconference. Initially, Gateway was set to be an integral part of the first of the Artemis mission, but NASA has since backed off that plan. The Artemis program has several key components: the Space Launch System rocket, the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule, and the lunar-orbiting Gateway space station. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play
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