Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Is Spending $3.4 Billion+ For Moon Landing Contract

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After a prolonged fight that saw NASA initially pick SpaceX for a multi-billion dollar contract to land humans on the lunar surface, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin won the contract for the second lunar lander. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the decision earlier today, and NASA's Jim Free explained that Blue Origin's lunar lander would be used as part of NASA's Artemis 5 mission.

The award is part of NASA's Artemis program that aims to develop a sustained human presence on the human. The first Artemis flight occurred late last year, and the second mission is slated for late 2024. This mission will see a crew of astronauts orbit around the Moon, and the first lunar landing will be through the Artemis 3 mission.

NASA awarded SpaceX a $3 billion contract for the Human Landing System (HLS) in 2021 - a decision dubbed controversial by Blue Origin, who argued that the agency had to choose two lunar landers. NASA had justified its decision by maintaining that it had the sole authority to pick the number of awards - a fact that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld.

The matter finally ended in court, which ruled in favor of NASA and SpaceX, and NASA opened up another contract for a second human landing system. The award for that system was made today, and in response to a question from Joey Roulettte of Reuters, Blue Origin's vice president for lunar transportation, Mr. John Couluris, shared that his company was "contributing over 50% of the total effort to get to not only this mission but to ensure permanence."

NASA's Jim Free shared that the award was roughly 3.5 billion dollars,