Blue Origin has revealed a life-sized model of its upcoming lunar cargo lander, Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1), achieving a significant step in its plans to facilitate cargo transport to the Moon’s surface.
On Friday, Blue Origin showed off a demonstrator of the Blue Moon Mark 1, providing the public and the aerospace community the first life-like glimpse of the future lunar cargo lander. This development is crucial for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade.
This unveiling is in keeping with Blue Origin’s $3.4 billion contract with NASAannounced on May 19. Under this contract, Blue Origin is tasked with designing, building, testing, and verifying the human landing system, known as Blue Moon. Blue Moon Mark 1 is part of the deal—a lunar cargo lander that will serve as a pathfinder mission for the human-rated version. Blue Origin has partnered with several firms for the project, forming the National Team consisting of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson attended the unveiling at the company’s production facility in Huntsville, Alabama, a gathering that also included Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. The model appeared in white with a striking golden trim, including Blue Origin’s iconic feather logo.
The 52-foot-tall (16-meter) Blue Moon will be available in two configurations: one tailored for landing humans on the lunar surface and another for delivering cargo and equipment. Both configurations are capable of delivering up to 30 metric tons. “Our Blue Moon landers are architected for that future day when lunar ice can be used to manufacture [liquid oxygen] and [liquid hydrogen] propellants on the Moon,” Blue Origin explained over X.
Blue Moon MK1 is a single-launch lunar cargo lander designed to remain on the Moon’s surface, providing a reliable and economical solution for access to the lunar environment. It’s engineered to leverage the 23-foot (7-meter) fairing of the company’s upcoming New Glenn launch vehicle, enabling it to deliver up to 3 metric tons of cargo to any location on the lunar surface, according to Blue Origin.
The first mission in this series, MK1-SN001 or the Pathfinder Mission, will serve as a critical demonstration, testing vital systems such as the BE-7 engine, cryogenic fluid power and propulsion systems, avionics, continuous downlink communications, and precision landing with an accuracy of within 328 feet (100 meters). This mission will be super important for validating the technology prior to uncrewed tests of Blue Origin’s NASA Human Landing System. Following the pathfinder mission, MK1 will be made available to customers.
Blue Origin’s lunar lander is set to play a critical role in NASA’s crewed Artemis 5 mission, scheduled for 2029. In parallel, SpaceX has also been contracted to develop the human landing system for the preceding Artemis 3 (scheduled for 2025 or 2026) and Artemis 4 (around 2028) missions, highlighting NASA’s commitment to working with a diverse set of commercial partners.
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