The creator of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, also does not want to miss the new race to return to the Moon and has been fighting for years to become one of NASA's contractors with Blue Origin, his aerospace company. He lost a first battle two years ago with SpaceX: Elon Musk's company managed to win the contract for the first lander (a decision that Bezos tried to challenge in court); but he has just won another to be responsible for the second ship that will land with astronauts starting with Artemis 5, NASA's new lunar program. This has been announced by the US space agency, which has chosen Blue Moon, Blue Origin's lunar landing module, to set foot on the Moon starting in 2029. Before, like SpaceX (who carried out a test flight with Spaceship a month ago , the ship with which Elon Musk plans to go to the Moon, and which ended up exploding), will first have to demonstrate its safety with different flights and an uncrewed moon landing. Standard Related News If NASA and Elon Musk, inseparable despite the Starship explosion Javier Ansorena The US space agency's commitment to the private sector cannot be reversed "It is an honor to be part of this journey with NASA," Bezos wrote to through their social networks after the announcement. The contract is worth $3.4 billion, but John Couluris, Blue Origin's vice president of lunar transportation, said at a news conference that the company would contribute "well beyond" that amount to develop the craft. What Bezos' ship is like The Blue Moon lunar landing module will be 16 meters high and will weigh 45 tons when filled with fuel (liquid hydrogen and oxygen). Several companies are partners in the project: Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics and Lockheed Martin. The latter will be in charge of developing a crucial element of the mission: a shuttle capable of refueling around the Moon. Once in lunar orbit, Blue Moon will need to refuel before being able to descend and lift astronauts from the surface of our satellite. Blue Origin plans to use its New Glenn rocket, which has never flown before, to launch both its lunar landing module and this shuttle. The steps to follow In the first three missions, astronauts will travel aboard the Orion capsule, propelled to the Moon thanks to NASA's new SLS megarocket. These two elements were tested empty during Artemis 1 and will be tested with a crew during Artemis 2. For Artemis 3, the first mission to see astronauts set foot on our satellite again since the 1970s, Orion will dock directly to SpaceX's lunar landing module. . Two astronauts will then descend to the Moon for about a week (another two will remain aboard Orion). Once they finish their experiments, the two astronauts will return in the lunar landing module to Orion, which will bring the four crew members back to Earth. Orion will then connect to the Gateway space station and astronauts will pass through it before boarding the SpaceX (Artemis 4) or Blue Origin (Artemis 5) lunar landing module. All of these missions aim at the south pole of the Moon, where water in the form of ice has been detected. There, astronauts will learn to live to test all the technologies necessary for an even more risky destination: Mars.
