

The Blue Origin National Team crewed lander arrives on the surface of the Moon.
Human Landing System
A National Team for a National Priority
NASA’s Artemis Program has a bold challenge to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024 – returning Americans to the lunar surface, opening the Moon for business, and building a path to Mars. To achieve these ambitious objectives, NASA released a solicitation for industry to develop the final piece of its Artemis lunar architecture, the Human Landing System (HLS). The National Team integrates four companies each having a head start for this fast-paced program. We are working on a flexible, multi-element, commercial, and sustainable solution for NASA’s HLS effort.
The National Team comprises Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper. Together we are developing a Human Landing System for NASA’s Artemis program to return Americans to the lunar surface by 2024. Our team brings decades of experience with human space flight systems, launch vehicles, propulsion, orbital logistics, deep-space missions, interplanetary navigation, and planetary landings. Our combined experience uniquely positions NASA to execute the Artemis program.
Each partner brings industry-leading solutions matched to the needs of HLS:

Blue Origin is prime contractor, leading program management, systems engineering, safety and mission assurance, and mission engineering. Blue also develops the Descent Element based on the Blue Moon lunar lander and BE-7 engine, both in development for years.

Lockheed Martin develops the reusable Ascent Element vehicle and leads crewed flight operations and training, based on Orion.

Northrop Grumman provides the Transfer Element vehicle that lowers the HLS vehicle from high lunar orbits, based on Cygnus.

Draper leads descent guidance and provides flight avionics.




Flight Avionics and Descent Guidance
This Time to Stay
The National Team’s approach to long-term sustainability focuses on reusability to increase affordability. More capable and longer missions to more locations on the surface will enable permanent, sustained surface operations, habitation, and development of lunar resources. The National Team looks forward to embarking on the next steps with NASA and returning to the Moon – this time to stay.

Flexible Performance
The National Team’s Human Landing System architecture is designed for maximum flexibility with minimal changes. The elements can launch on various combinations of U.S. commercial or government launch systems. The system can dock directly with Orion or the lunar Gateway and can land cargo manifests ranging from one to fifteen tons on the lunar surface.
Road to 2024
The National Team’s path to 2024 with NASA includes incremental testing and demonstration of all elements, both on the ground and in space. The National Team will conduct a full-up landing demonstration of the Descent Element in 2023 while also pre-positioning significant payload at the lunar South Pole.

We’re Going to the Moon
The National Team’s partnership brings NASA immense experience developing, integrating, and operating launch systems, human-rated spacecraft, and planetary landers. This gives the National Team a head start on every element required for HLS. In addition, significant concurrent private investment delivers the best value for the nation. With a flexible launch approach and system architecture built for sustainability – the National Team will meet this bold national challenge.