The agency says the Saturn-V rocket that carried the Apollo missions used three prime contractors, North American, Boeing, and Douglas Aircraft. The Apollo lunar program that out astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon demonstrated how NASA used multiple contractors on space missions. This upcoming activity, known as the Sustaining Lunar Development contract, will lay out requirements for the future capability to carry astronauts to and from the surface of the Moon. Future landers after the Artemis 3 touchdown on the Moon could include opening the process of developing lunar landers to a wider collection of potential contractors. NASA, and Marshall, tweaked that process last year for going beyond that. The space agency originally asked SpaceX to be the prime contractor for the craft to carry the first astronauts to the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. Specifically, the Biden budget proposal includes additional funding for NASA to build a new lunar landing vehicle. That booster carried the agency’s first Orion space capsule, without astronauts on board, to orbit on the first leg of a trip around the Moon. Marshall manages the new Moon effort and tested components for NASA’s new super rocket, called the Space Launch System or SLS. $8.1 billion dollars are being earmarked for NASA’s Artemis program to send astronauts to the lunar surface. The goals set by the White House could mean a larger investment for work being done or managed by Alabama’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. ![]() President Joe Biden is seeking to increase NASA’s budget to $27.2 billion next year.
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