Synopsis
Here is a summary of the report regarding NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program:
- The report was issued by NASA in April 2022 in response to direction from Congress to explain how NASA will ensure safety, redundancy, sustainability, and competition in the HLS program.
- The HLS program is critical for NASA’s goal of returning humans to the lunar surface through the Artemis program. The initial HLS contract was awarded to SpaceX to develop a lander for the Artemis III mission in 2024.
- NASA has updated its HLS acquisition strategy to support competition and redundancy in development of sustainable landers. This includes awarding a contract to SpaceX to evolve their initial lander design into a sustainable lander (Option B) as well as competitively procuring a separate Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) contract for another provider to develop a sustainable lander.
- The SLD contract will require an uncrewed and crewed demonstration landing. In total, NASA plans to have one crewed mission by SpaceX and one uncrewed and one crewed mission by the SLD provider to demonstrate sustainable capabilities prior to competition for recurring services.
- NASA’s FY2023 budget request includes $1.486 billion for HLS to support both the SpaceX Artemis III lander and the start of the updated acquisition approach. Safety is a top priority, with extensive reviews and uncrewed demonstrations required.
- The overall strategy aims to have multiple providers ready to compete for recurring transportation services to the lunar surface, providing redundancy during development and enabling a sustained NASA presence on the Moon.
