Artemis Human Lander Contract Decision Delayed
NASA delays moon lander awards as Biden team mulls moonshot program, The Verge
“Last Wednesday, NASA told the three contractors that an extension to their development contracts “will be required,” picking a new award date of April 30th. Under the Trump administration’s timeline, the agency had planned to pick two of the three bidders in late February, giving a stamp of approval for two systems that would inevitably carry humans to the moon. The delay was all but certain: The spending bill Congress passed in December gives NASA $850 million for the Human Landing System program, far short of the $3.2 billion it needed to stick with the 2024 timeline.”
Earlier posts on Artemis
As I said back then, the required upfront funding for the 2024 Artemis date was never realistic – Congress was never going to give them a multi-billion dollar above-the-line increase for this.
Here’s hoping they still do the contracts down the line. This might be good for SpaceX – it gives them more time to get Starship development going before the down select happens.