[Dynetics joins in protest] Blue Origin to challenge the selection of SpaceX’s Starship for human lander contract

Back on April 16th, NASA announced that SpaceX would win the bid for Artemis’ Human Landing System contract. After a year-long competition, Blue Origin disagrees with the selection and hopes to get it changed.

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SpaceX Boca Chica teams getting ready for the first flight of Starship SN15

After what seems to be a successful static fire Monday afternoon of the three Raptor engines. SpaceX is getting ready for another Starship flight of the upgraded SN15.

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Space Pod: Astronaut Tom Cruise, NASA Human Landing System, SpaceX Demo-2

In a special video conversation with space communicator Alex Orphanos, we discuss Tom Cruise going to the International Space Station, NASA’s three Human Landing System proposals for Artemis lunar missions, the upcoming SpaceX Demo-2 mission and NASA returning human spaceflight to the U.S., and much more.

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NASA taps SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to develop human landing systems for Artemis moon mission

NASA is returning astronauts to the Moon in this decade for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis program will see the first woman and next man walk on the Moon by 2024. The program will rely on NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, and Orion capsule for transporting astronauts from Earth to the Moon.

Artemis will also require a modern human landing system, or HLS, and today NASA announced which companies will be tasked with developing the new hardware.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics have been selected as commercial partners to design and develop NASA’s modern human landing system.

NASA outlines how each company’s proposal for new human landing systems:

  • Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, is developing the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV) – a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system. 
  • Dynetics (a Leidos company) of Huntsville, Alabama, is developing the Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS) – a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities that will launch on the ULA Vulcan launch system. 
  • SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is developing the Starship – a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket. 

Here’s how each Human Landing System proposal will work:

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