NASA says it has worked with Blue Origin and SpaceX to streamline the designs of the human landing systems that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface under the Artemis program. The aim is to have the landers ready for crewed missions in 2028.
Beyond simplifying the hardware, both companies have changed their concepts of operations, meaning the planned sequence of steps each lander follows from launch to touchdown and back is now different from what was proposed when the original contracts were signed.
According to NASA, the changes support its broader goal of returning people to the Moon and building a long-term presence there. The agency has not presented them as a reset of the programme. Instead, it describes them as a way to pick up the pace of lander development with its commercial partners.
