Blue Origin's lunar lander, Blue Moon, is now ready for NASA Artemis astronaut training, marking a significant milestone in the agency's ambitious Artemis program. This development comes as a neighbor to NASA's Orion space capsule simulator, allowing astronauts to seamlessly transition between the two for comprehensive training. The Artemis program aims to establish a permanent lunar presence, and Blue Moon is one of the two lunar landers chosen by NASA through its Human Landing System (HLS) contracts, alongside SpaceX's Starship.
What makes this particularly fascinating is the integration of a cabin model for training at a NASA facility. Astronauts have been testing early cabin designs and the spacecraft's elevator, which will lower crews from the cabin to the base. This is a crucial step in the development of the lunar landers, as both Blue Moon and Starship face delays in their respective development stages. The Blue Moon MK 2, for instance, will be 52 feet tall with the crew cabin near the base.
The Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for late 2027, is dependent on the readiness of at least one lunar lander. NASA is willing to fly with either or both vehicles, depending on their readiness. The mission will involve four astronauts aboard Orion, practicing docking procedures and verifying life support and communications systems. However, the Artemis program's long-term, sustainable habitation approach makes it untenable to abandon half a lunar lander on the surface for every mission, as was the case with the Apollo program.
To achieve the single-stage landing and launch back to orbit, both Starship and Blue Moon will need several on-orbit refueling flights, requiring transfer and long-term storage of cryogenic propellants, a capability that has never been demonstrated in space. Once these milestones are accomplished, NASA will require successful uncrewed missions to the lunar surface for each lander before they can carry astronauts. The Blue Moon lander mockup now operational in the SVMF is not the final design, but NASA plans to use it to provide feedback on the MK2's development.
Additionally, Blue Moon MK1, a smaller cargo variant, has completed vacuum chamber testing and is set to launch on an uncrewed mission to the moon later this year. However, this mission may face delays due to an investigation with the FAA into the failure of New Glenn's upper stage on its most recent launch. The Artemis program's success hinges on the timely development and testing of these lunar landers and the associated technologies, as NASA aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2028.
