NASA, Partners Accelerate Lander Development for 2028 Moon Missions

NASA and commercial partners Blue Origin and SpaceX have streamlined their lander designs and operations to accelerate crewed lunar missions toward a 2028 return. Under updated plans, NASA and both providers will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between landers and the Orion spacecraft in low Earth orbit next year.

To speed up development, the revised architecture removes the previous requirement to meet in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. Instead, operations will use orbits informed by each partner's systems. SpaceX plans to use low Earth orbit propellant aggregation, where tanker Starships fuel a depot Starship that subsequently powers the Starship lander.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin will defer propellant transfer, utilizing three transfer stages and an elliptical polar orbit for its Blue Moon Mark 2 Alpha lander. Both companies must complete uncrewed demonstration missions prior to carrying crew. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated that the agency aims to complete the return of American astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 and establish a Moon base.

NASA will ultimately select which company flies first based on lander readiness.

Both contractors have added development milestones, including SpaceX adding two crew cabin demonstrations and Blue Origin incorporating human-in-the-loop testing.