NASA selects Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to build moon lander

US space agency NASA announced on May 19 that it has selected Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin to construct a "human landing system" that will send astronauts to and from the surface of the moon, on a contract valued at about $3.4 billion.

"Blue Origin will design, develop, test, and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet NASA’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway, a space station where crew transfer in lunar orbit," NASA said in a statement, according to Anadolu Agency.

"In addition to design and development work, the contract includes one uncrewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a crewed demo on the Artemis V mission in 2029," it added.

"Together, we’ll be solving the boil-off problem and making LOX-LH2 a storable propellant combination, pushing forward the state of the art for all deep space missions," he added.

NASA previously contracted Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the Artemis III mission in April 2021, after which Bezos' Blue Origin filed a lawsuit that aims to prevent a rival company from exclusive rights to land astronauts on the moon.