Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has teamed up with Nasa in a bid to land the first woman on the moon
His firm Blue Origin will work with aerospace giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to design a spacecraft capable of carrying out this historic mission.
Earlier this year, Nasa pledged to land a female astronaut on the moon in five years’ time as part of a new programme called Artemis.
It’s hoped that seeing the first woman land on the moon will inspire a new generation of young girls to work in the space industry.
‘National challenges call for a national response,’ said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin.
‘We are humbled and inspired to lead this deeply committed team that will land NASA astronauts on the Moon.
‘Combining our partners’ heritage with our advance work on the Blue Moon lunar lander and its BE-7 engine, our team is looking forward to working with Nasa in support of the Artemis program.’
It’s hoped that the mission will be complete by 2025 – a massively ambitious target.
Earlier this year, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstein said: ‘I have an 11-year-old daughter and I want her to be able to see herself in the same way that our current very diverse astronaut corps sees itself.
Blue Origin will be ‘prime contractor’ and lead on program management, systems engineering and safety assurance.
It will also provide the ‘Descent Element’ part of the craft that’s based on its Blue Moon lunar lander and BE-7 engine.
Lockheed Martin will develop the reusable Ascent Element vehicle and leads crewed flight operations and training.
Northrop Grumman will build the Transfer Element vehicle that brings the landing system down towards the moon whilst Draper will work on descent guidance and provides flight avionics.
‘Lockheed Martin has been honored to help NASA explore space for more than 50 years, providing deep space robotic missions, planetary landers, space shuttle heritage and the Orion exploration spacecraft,” said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space.
‘We value Blue Origin’s thoughtful approach to developing human-rated flight systems, and are thrilled to be part of a national team with this mix of innovation and experience. We look forward to safely and sustainably returning our nation to the surface of the Moon by 2024.’
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