Fourteen companies submit commercial lunar lander concept to NASA

Fourteen companies have already applied to NASA to compete for a contract to take people and cargo to the moon. Since yesterday, large companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are also participating in the tender.

NASA made the announcement Monday night during a conference call about the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. That is a program in which the space organization engages companies to build landers and other equipment for future missions to the moon. America wants to return to the moon in 2024 and wants to send cargo there before that time in preparation. NASA therefore uses commercial companies for this. It does the same for other programs, such as the Commercial Resupply Program and the Commercial Crew Program, where SpaceX, Boeing and other companies send cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station in the future.

In total, NASA is making $2.6 billion available to the companies to build landers. As of Monday, a total of fourteen companies have made a proposal to build such landers. There were initially nine, but since this week, SpaceX and Blue Origin have also submitted a proposal, in addition to Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. They can now bid on the contract. In May, NASA already selected three companies that may finally build such a lander.

Sierra Nevada and Tyvak both want to make a small cargo lander. Blue Origin already showed its own concept for a lunar lander earlier this year and SpaceX wants to use its Starship to put cargo and astronauts on the moon. In addition to a lander, Ceres Robotics has also proposed a rover.