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‘We’re going to the moon… this time to stay’: Jeff Bezos announces a $3.4 billion NASA contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface with his Blue Origin craft – while hinting at plans to build the very first base on the moon
NASA has awarded Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his private rocket firm a $3.4 billion contract to return astronauts to the moon, Jim Free, chief of exploration for the US space agency, said Friday.
Bezos’ Blue Origin is the second company to score a lunar mission project as part of NASA’s Artemis program, following Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which won $3 billion in 2021 to put humans back on the moon for the first time since 1972.
According to John Couluris, Blue Origin’s lunar lander chief, Blue Origin contributed privately “well north” of the contract’s $3.4 billion payout.
Bezos’ lunar lander (mock-up pictured) is being built in partnership with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, spacecraft software company Draper, and robotics company Astrobotic
Bezos announced the mission with brutal implications that he intends to build a lunar base
Couluris’ official title at Blue Origin for the past three years has been “Vice President for Advanced Development Programs – Lunar Permanence” – and his boss was referring to exactly those plans for “permanence” when announcing the deal.
“We’re going to the moon!” Bezos’s caption is to an Instagram post featuring a mock-up of his proposed Blue Origin lunar lander, “this time to stay.”
Bezos’ company has been vague on details regarding the lunar lander proposal, aside from checking the name of its business partners: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, the spacecraft software company Draper, and the robotics company Astrobotic.
Musk’s NASA Artemis missions, using SpaceX’s Starship system, are scheduled for later this decade, with Bezos’ Blue Origin missions next.