US Senate orders NASA to select second company to develop Moon lander

The United States Committee on Senate Appropriators has directed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to select a second company to develop a moon lander for the upcoming Artemis program. This decision by the Senate comes after NASA provided a billion-dollar moon landing contract only to SpaceX back in April 2021, while Blue Origin and Dynetics stood in line. Meanwhile, in response to the Senate's direction, NASA says that lack of funding cannot support two teams for the program. 

The Senate-NASA tussle

NASA and the Senate are on a tussle as the former alleges that including two teams for preparing a Human Landing System (HLS) for the moon is not possible because the Artemis program is underfunded, as per SpaceNews. Rejecting NASA's claims, the Senate appropriators stated that it was the space agency that only requested $1.195 billion in funding for the program in the fiscal year 2022, despite their earlier predictions that it would need nearly $4.4 billion. 

Besides, the drafts report consisting of nine bills that were released on October 19 and included funding for NASA, revealed that NASA has been allocated total funding of $24.83 billion which is $100 million higher than its request of $24.8 billion. Slamming NASA's claims, the committee stated that the administration's rhetoric about being underfunded and lacking resources is hollow, SpaceNews reported.

Following this legal back and forth, the appropriators have asked NASA to present a plan on how it will include the second company in the Artemis program without exceeding the allocated budget. According to SpaceNews, the Senate expects the plan, which should also include budget plans for the coming years, within 30 days of the bill becoming a law.

Image: NASA