NASA selects these private companies for upcoming moon mission.
New Delhi : NASA has finally selected nine companies that will compete for billions of dollars in contracts to take small payloads for the agency to the surface of the moon.
“We are building a domestic American capability to get back and forth to the surface of the moon,” said Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator.
Way back in 1972, NASA astronauts last landed on the surface of Moon and since then, no US spacecraft has explored the lunar surface.
Altogether, the contracts could be worth up to $2.6 billion over 10 years. Flights could begin as soon as next year, and NASA officials are aiming for two a year, or about 20 in all.
Besides depending on NASA engineers to design the spacecraft, the space agency is requesting proposals from companies to provide those services. Accordingly, NASA would just be one of many customers, Bridenstine said. The companies could also carry commercial cargo
The companies NASA selected in the future Moon landing mission are:
- Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh
- Deep Space Systems of Littleton, Colorado
- Draper of Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas
- Intuitive Machines of Houston
- Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colorado
- Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California
- Moon Express of Cape Canaveral, Florida
- Orbit Beyond of Edison, New Jersey
The nine companies already have blue-print of the hardware; while, other teams are still on drawing board or working on prototypes. Most of the teams said they would not be ready until 2021. NASA officials said they did not expect all of the companies to succeed.
Let's hope for the best!
