Tag: Lunar Lander
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Jeff Bezos shows off Blue Origin’s BE-7 engine — and makes a bold prediction
Blue Origin’s BE-7 rocket engine goes through a test firing. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos heralded progress on the development of the rocket engine that’s destined for use on the lunar lander that his Blue Origin space venture is building — but he also offered a glimpse into his crystal ball for future…
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Blue Origin completes successful suborbital space shot
Blue Origin’s 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket takes off from West Texas on Tuesday. Credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin launched its New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of space Tuesday from the company’s remote desert test site in West Texas on an experimental flight to test precision lunar landing technology for NASA. The single-stage New…
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Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceship tests NASA’s moon landing system in Texas
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship rises from its West Texas pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceship today conducted a robotic rehearsal for a future touchdown on the moon — and by all appearances, it stuck the landing. Testing most of the elements of NASA’s precision lunar landing system was the top…
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NASA touts lunar landing tech, and Blue Origin says there’ll be a flight test ‘soon’
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship makes a precision landing in May 2019. (Blue Origin Photo) Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong famously had to dodge a boulder-strewn crater just seconds before the first moon landing in 1969 — but for future lunar touchdowns, NASA expects robotic eyes to see such missions to safe landings. And…
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Blue Origin and partners pass key milestone for lunar lander design
Artwork shows the National Team’s lunar lander making its touchdown. (Blue Origin Illustration) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says the aerospace team that it’s leading has completed its first “gated milestone” in a NASA-funded effort to develop a lunar lander for crewed missions. The milestone — known as the system requirement review,…
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Blue Origin and its partners deliver a lunar lander mock-up to NASA
An engineering mock-up of the crew lander vehicle designed by Blue Origin and its partners stands tall inside Building 9 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. (Blue Origin Photo) An all-star space industry team led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has assembled a mock-up of its proposed lunar lander right…
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NASA picks Astrobotic to deliver its VIPER rover to lunar south pole for nearly $200M
NASA has awarded a $199.5 million contract to Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic to deliver its VIPER rover to the moon’s south pole in 2023, marking one more not-so-small step for the commercialization of lunar exploration. VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will conduct a detailed on-the-ground assessment of water ice buried in lunar soil.…
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NASA puts Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX on the list for lunar lander development program
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, equipped with an ascent module built by Lockheed Martin. (Blue Origin Illustration via NASA) NASA has selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop lunar landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024. “We want to be…
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NASA picks Masten Space Systems to deliver science to the moon’s south pole
An artist’s conception shows Masten Space Systems’ XL-1 lander on the moon. (Masten Space Systems Illustration) NASA has selected California-based Masten Space Systems to deliver eight science payloads to the moon’s south pole in 2022 on its XL-1 lunar lander. Seattle-based Olis Robotics has a role in getting one of those payloads, a robotic arm,…
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Boeing proposes SLS-launched lunar lander
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Nov. 10 to correct references to ascent and descent stage functions. Artist’s concept of Boeing’s lunar lander taking off from the moon. Credit: Boeing Boeing is touting a lunar lander concept that the company claims could launch in one piece on an upgraded version of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket — which…