Blue Moon (spacecraft)

Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers and their associated infrastructure, intended to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, under development by a consortium led by Blue Origin and including Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. Two versions of Blue Moon are under development: a robotic lander originally planned to land on the Moon in 2024 and delayed to 2026, and a larger human lander planned to land a crew of four astronauts on the lunar surface for NASA's Artemis program. Development of the smaller, uncrewed lander (Mark 1) began in 2016 and was publicly revealed in 2017. It is planned to be capable of delivering up to 3.0 tonnes (3.3 short tons) of payload to the surface of the Moon. Originally envisioned as a way to gain experience with lunar landings and to support technology development, Mark 1 is also marketed independently of Mark 2. The lander has been proposed for a number of projected roles; an initial goal was a lunar south pole landing, where it was proposed that a series of landings could be used to deliver the infrastructure for a Moon base. Blue Moon formed the basis of part of the Integrated Lander Vehicle, a proposal for a human lander bid, but was not chosen for the Artemis HLS program. The human lander, referred to as Mark 2, was chosen by NASA as the winner of the Sustaining Lunar Development Human Landing System contract in May 2023. It is the second human lunar lander under contract by NASA for the Artemis HLS program, alongside SpaceX Starship HLS. It is intended to carry up to 4 astronauts to the lunar surface for up to 30 days in a fully reusable configuration, with a cargo variant also planned. The lander is designed to be...