Boeing unveils lunar lander proposal to take astronauts to moon by 202424

Boeing has submitted a proposal for a lunar lander to space agency NASA. This Boeing design will compete with other privately-owned designs for the U.S. goal to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024.

According to Boeing, the Human Lander System has been taken into account to keep complexity as low as possible and the landing system has been designed according to a ‘minimum steps-to-the-moon approach’. This is reflected in the fact that the descent and ascent parts of the design can be launched with a single rocket, although the more powerful block 1B variant of the Space Launch System rocket must be used. In addition, according to Boeing, this integrated lander is able to take itself out of high orbit around the moon and eventually descend to the lunar surface, without the need for a transfer stage.

With this, Boeing specifically opposes the design of Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. This company previously presented its Blue Moon, a lunar lander design that does require a transfer stage; this part of this lander is built by Northrop Grumman. Boeing says the absence of this means that its HLS requires fewer launches and makes the steps for a successful moon landing easier.

These designs are submitted to NASA’s Artemis program. The organization plans to select at least two proposals early next year to fly NASA’s large, still-under-development Space Launch System rocket to the moon by 2024, with the astronauts in an Orion capsule, atop the rocket ship. This capsule connects to the Lunar Gateway, a space station that comes into orbit around the moon, although Boeing’s HLS can also connect directly to the Orion, so that the astronauts can go directly to the moon, as it were. Incidentally, the development of the SLS rocket is accompanied by enormous costs and delays, which means that it is still uncertain whether the schedule will be achieved.