If all goes as planned, multiple commercial spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts to the moon's surface in only a few years. The agency announced Mar. 23 that it will fund the development of a second privately made crewed lunar lander.
"This strategy expedites progress toward a long-term, sustaining lander capability as early as the 2026 or 2027 timeframe," Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said in a statement.
"We expect to have two companies safely carry astronauts in their landers to the surface of the moon under NASA's guidance before we ask for services, which could result in multiple experienced providers in the market," Watson-Morgan added.
NASA selected SpaceX in April 2021 to build the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the moon in the mid-2020s and establish a long-term human presence on and around Earth's nearest neighbor by the end of the decade.
NASA had planned to choose multiple commercial crewed landers for Artemis in order to ensure redundancy and to motivate the teams building the vehicles through competition. However, because Congress did not provide sufficient funding to enable the construction of numerous spacecraft, NASA decided to work only with SpaceX in April 2021.
Dynetics and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, the other two candidates for the award, both protested the decision. In addition to a public letter from Bezos to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson denouncing the decision, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit, which ultimately failed but slowed SpaceX's lander development work by nearly seven months.
However, there were more surprises to come. The Senate Appropriations Committee directed NASA in October 2021 to select a second company to design a crewed moon lander. The funding increase linked to this order was minor, but NASA now appears to have guarantees that the required funds will be provided to sustain the second lander.
During a press conference, Nelson said that Congress is "committed to ensuring that we have more than one lander to choose [from] for future missions," citing conversations he's had with people on Capitol Hill in the past year.
When the White House presents its 2023 federal budget request next week, he said, exact funding numbers and other data should be available.
Except for SpaceX, this newly announced competition will be available to all American companies. However, NASA officials noted during the press conference that Elon Musk's company will have the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of its existing contract to do more lunar development work.
