Blue Origin is going to build a second lunar lander for the Artemis mission

American aerospace company Blue Origin will be in charge of building a second lunar landing systemintended to carry astronauts to the surface of the moon for the Artemis 5 mission, which NASA says will take place in 2029.

This lunar landing module will first have to be demonstrated their safety by landing on the moon without a crew.

“It’s an honor to be part of this journey with NASA to take astronauts to the moon,” the billionaire said on his Twitter account on Friday. Jeff Bezosfounder of Blue Origin and the online trading giant Amazon.

The contract is worth $3.4 billion. In any case, John Couluris, Blue Origin’s vice president of lunar transportation, said the company would contribute “much more” to the development of the spacecraft, it says. ep.

Artemis, the US space agency’s lunar return program, consists of several missions of increasing difficulty.

In 2021, NASA chose SpaceX to build the lunar lander Artemis 3, which will be the first mission to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface since 1972. The contract was worth $2.9 billion, though SpaceX is contributing more than that amount.