By Joey Roulette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 14 (Reuters) - After the safe return of four astronauts from a historic flyby of the moon last week, NASA is shifting focus to its next challenge: putting competing lunar landers from Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin through a series of rigorous tests ahead of future crewed landings.
NASA's nearly 10-day Artemis II mission marked the first crewed flight of the agency’s multibillion-dollar return-to-the-moon program and sent astronauts
farther from Earth than ever before. The mission was designed as a dress rehearsal for later flights, validating the systems needed to carry crews into deep space.
But the milestone has also sharpened attention on what many officials see as one of the program's biggest remaining risks. The commercial lunar landers must demonstrate that they can perform a complex final descent to the moon and bring astronauts safely home, a feat NASA has not attempted since 1972.
NASA aims to put astronauts back on the moon by 2028 as it faces growing competition from China, which plans a crewed lunar landing by 2030. To hedge against delays, the agency selected both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop competing landers, hoping competition and private investment would accelerate progress.
"They both look at this as a competition, and that's a great thing," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in an interview on Monday.
Isaacman spoke days after welcoming back the Artemis II astronauts, who splashed down on Friday following their mission around the moon. The flight marked the first crewed launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and the Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin.
While SLS and Orion are traditional, government-owned vehicles designed to ferry astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit, NASA has turned to commercial companies for the final leg of the journey: landing on the moon's surface.
MUSK VS BEZOS IN BILLIONAIRES' MOON RACE
SpaceX is developing a Human Landing System based on its massive Starship rocket, a stainless-steel vehicle far larger than any moon lander built before. Blue Origin is building its own Blue Moon lander, relying on a more traditional design philosophy.
Blue Origin aims to land an uncrewed version of Blue Moon on the moon this summer, according to two people familiar with the plan, marking the company's first attempt at a soft lunar landing. The test, known as Mark 1, would be a critical milestone after years of development.
“I will just say that this Mark 1 landing is going to be very important,” Isaacman said.
SpaceX, meanwhile, is preparing to launch a new iteration of Starship, known as Version 3, as soon as May, following a months-long hiatus. The rocket, first unveiled by Musk in 2016, has suffered repeated delays and test failures as SpaceX pushes the limits of launch, landing and reusability.
After 11 test flights since 2023, some ending in explosions, SpaceX says the new version incorporates dozens of upgrades requested by NASA.
“That's the version that HLS is going to be based on,” said Kent Chojnacki, NASA's deputy manager for the Human Landing System program. “That's going to become the workhorse version.”
Before Starship can land astronauts on the moon, SpaceX must first put the vehicle into orbit and demonstrate controlled reentry of its upper stage, a step it has not yet achieved. The company must then show that two Starships can dock in space and transfer propellant, a capability NASA considers essential for lunar missions.
NASA has pressed both companies to accelerate their work, though officials acknowledge the challenges are formidable.
MOON LANDER DESIGNS CHANGING
Unlike Apollo, which landed six crews on the moon within a few years, Artemis is designed to be a long-term program, with landers that can be reused and adapted for sustained exploration. That ambition has added complexity and increased testing demands.
Asked whether SpaceX had proposed an accelerated plan that avoids Starship's demanding in-space refueling sequence, Isaacman said both companies "have taken an approach that brings down the technical risks significantly."
NASA officials say they expect the designs to further evolve.
"I don't have any faith that the design today is going to be the design that lands on the moon," Chojnacki said.
Blue Origin has reworked parts of its original architecture after NASA pushed for faster progress. People familiar with the company's plans said it has simplified early missions, shelving more complex refueling concepts for its initial moon landings in favor of designs that reduce near-term risk.
Despite the uncertainty, NASA insists the dual-provider strategy gives it the best chance of success.
"I don't think it's lost on either one of them the importance of getting to the moon and doing so before our big rival,” Isaacman said, an apparent reference to China.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Joe Brock and Bill Berkrot)
