Blue Origin Prepares to Snatch Away SpaceX's Biggest Project
Endurance Mk1 is a cargo lander that could be the basis of the next crewed lunar landing vehicle.Credit: NASA
It may be debatable whether the Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace company Blue Origin won the race to put a billionaire into space, but the perennial second runner of the private space industry could be on the trail of a much more lasting win.
This week, NASA announced that a Blue Origin-designed Moon lander had completed critical testing in the agency's vacuum chamber, raising hopes that it could be the first to meet NASA's specifications for a crewed lander. This one is only a cargo lander, but many of its design principles apply to both projects.
For reference, the NASA contract to make a manned lunar lander, or Human Landing System (HLS), originally went to Elon Musk's SpaceX, based on some rather ambitious timelines for completion. Then the timelines started slipping, and NASA...
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