NASA Seeks Industry Partners to Build Human Lunar Landers

NASA aims to partner with U.S.-based companies to design and develop new reusable landing platforms designed to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface.

The agency said Friday it plans to begin testing of new landers on the moon in 2024 through multiphase partnerships in support of its goal to launch a crewed mission in 2028.

“Building on our model in low-Earth orbit, we’ll expand our partnerships with industry and other nations to explore the moon and advance our missions to farther destinations such as Mars, with America leading the way,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The agency plans to issue on Jan 2. a solicitation for human landers under its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 broad agency announcement, according to a FedBizOpps notice published Thursday.

NASA will support design analysis, system development and integration, technology maturation and spaceflight demonstration of lunar landing systems through NextSTEP-2 BAA.