Blue Origin Creates Aerospace Alliance To Work On Its Lunar Lander

Blue Origin plays a major role in the ongoing NASA’s Artemis project as the Bezos-backed aerospace company has been working on the “Blue Moon” lunar lander. As part of the program, a trio of collaborators - who are all veterans in the aerospace industry - will accompany Blue Origin to make its Human Landing System done. All of them are big names many people may have heard a lot before, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper.

First and foremost, Lockheed will give a hand on the reusable vehicle namely Ascent Element, along with leading crewed flight ops. To transfer the landing system to the Moon, Blue Origin also calls upon Northrop Grumman to work on the Transfer Element. Finally, Draper will add some additional help in handling descent guidance as well as avionics. In the past, Draper built the guidance system for the historical Apollo program, so it's not strange for them to continue working on the upcoming NASA's missions.

Despite that, Blue Origin still has to complete a bunch of other works in the pipeline. Because the company has been tasked with the role of a “prime contractor”, it will have to ensure anything from management to engineering, safety, and assurance for not only systems but also the whole mission. Aside, it will carry out the Descent Element system, an important part of the lander.

The alliance expects to make NASA’s ambitious goal come closer to reality. Of course, all parties need support from each other in case they want to successfully resend human to the Moon in the near future.