Blue Origin/X
Private space exploration company Blue Origin said its Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander arrived in Houston for testing.
A lunar lander from the private space exploration company Blue Origin is in Houston for testing at the Johnson Space Center, the company announced on Monday.
The Blue Moon MK1 Lunar Lander is a single-launch lander that would, if flown, land on the moon much like the lunar modules of the Apollo mission did.
The lander is being tested in Houston at the Johnson Space Center. Testing will be done at the thermal vacuum Chamber A, a 90-foot-tall chamber designed to create a vacuum and simulate conditions in space.
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At the Johnson Space Center, the lunar lander will be exposed to temperatures ranging from negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit (-50 degrees C) to 86 degrees (30 degrees C). Full mission testing will happen at both those temperatures.
“This will prove that MK1 can maintain thermal equilibrium and perform its mission in space,” Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, said in a post on social media.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is working toward a goal of providing a lunar landing system by the Artemis V mission. NASA currently has a contract with SpaceX, the private space exploration company owned by Elon Musk and operating in South Texas, for similar systems in the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions.
Speculation had previously arisen that NASA would give SpaceX the boot, given concerns with the success of the company’s own lunar lander, Starship. Then-acting administrator Sean Duffy indicated he was open to the idea, though NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, is closely tied to SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk.
Blue Origin recently paused its other major initiative, the New Shepherd rocket, a reusable rocket that launches in West Texas, so as to focus on lunar space missions.