NASA will unite SpaceX, Blue Origin and other companies for the lunar mission (3 photos)

The US aerospace agency NASA is launching a new NextSTEP program. Its goal is the development of space transport for manned flights to the moon.

The program will be attended by 11 private companies: Boeing, SpaceX, Masten Space Systems, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Dynetics, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, OrbitBeyond, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Aerojet Rocketdyne and SSL. Each program participant will receive a specific task, the implementation of which will be given six months.

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US space agency is readyallocate $ 45.5 million for the implementation of the concept of the landing module in the framework of the NextSTEP project. Under the terms of the program, private companies pay 20% of the total cost of the projects themselves. In this case, the required apparatus must be reusable with the ability to descend from the lunar station Deep Space Gateway to the surface of the Moon and return, for example, to transport cargo, people and automatic refueling.

NextSTEP (Next Space Technologies for ExplorationPartnerships) - part of the new Artemis program (“Artemis”), aimed at the exploration of the Moon. According to the documents, by 2024, the first re-landing of astronauts on the south pole of the moon is planned, and by 2028, the program participants will go on permanent missions.

Source: NASAm