Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon, the billionaire said as Nasa nears a decision over who will supply its first privately built lunar landers, meant to be capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024. “Today they do, and I think this is a very exciting opportunity.”The Blue Origin engine, which has been in development for years, has tallied 1,245 seconds of test-fire time. It is meant to power the company’s National Team Human Landing System lunar lander. Blue Origin is the prime contractor in a “national team” assembled in 2019 to help build its Blue Moon lander. In April, Nasa awarded the Blue Origin team a lunar lander development contract worth $579m.

Source: The Guardian December 05, 2020 20:37 UTC