A SpaceX Starship variant will return humans to the moon in 2025 for the first time since the Apollo era, despite protests from rival Blue Origin.

Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander will take astronauts to the moon's surface in 2029, on the Artemis 5 mission. It's the second crewed lander for NASA's Artemis program.

The Blue Moon, as the new HLS is called, ... Both are reusable. Blue Moon is smaller than Starship but will still sustain four astronauts on the lunar surface for up to 30 days.

Cargo variants of Starship HLS and Blue Moon Mark 2 are also planned. Starship’s cargo capacity is targeted at 100 tons (90,700 kg), though this depends on the performance of the Super Heavy ...

A SpaceX Starship upper stage exploded during ramp-up to an expected engine test firing at the company's Starbase facility on ...

Cargo versions of SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon landers. Credit: NASA BERLIN — NASA plans to use cargo versions of Artemis lunar landers under development by Blue Origin and ...

So, Starship HLS needs an elevator to take astronauts from the nose down to the lunar surface. SpaceX built a prototype of the planned HLS elevator at its facility in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX has just unveiled a new variant of the HLS Starship, designed specifically for NASA’s Artemis Moon missions. With major upgrades in landing capability, fuel efficiency, and astronaut support ...

The SLD program was effectively a second-chance contest that NASA organized after Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the sole contract winner in 2021.

Path to selecting Blue Moon. ... (HLS) program. Blue Origin and Dynetics, ... Both SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon will eventually compete for missions after Artemis 5 under ...

The award, worth $3.4 billion, means that NASA should have two separate human landing systems for moon missions by the end of the decade, with SpaceX already developing its own Starship HLS lander ...

So, Starship HLS needs an elevator to take astronauts from the nose down to the lunar surface. ... However, the unimaginatively named Blue Moon Lander won't be ready until later Artemis landings.