On Thursday, NASA announced that it has selected three US companies to develop and perfect human landing technologies for the agencies Artemis program. The three companies are SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics. According to NASA, the first woman and next man will travel to the moon’s surface by using this new to-be-developed technology as early as 2024.
The contracts with NASA are worth a combined total of $967 million and require the companies to participate in a 10 month base period to improve their lander concepts and technologies. The space agency plans to procure trips to the moon through commercial space transportation services in the future. NASA stated that the contracts represent the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system.
Read More: NASA Taps Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to Help Transport Humans to the Moon Again