Following a year of testing and development, NASA recently selected SpaceX’s Starship-based Human Landing System (HLS) to land astronauts on the moon under the Artemis program. SpaceX’s proposal was the highest rated and lowest cost offering among three studied designs, the others provided by Blue Origin’s National Team and Dynetics.
In contrast to NASA’s stated wish for multiple Human Landing Systems, only one design was selected for an initial uncrewed demonstration and the first crewed landing, due to significant budget constraints. The offerings from Blue Origin, Dynetics, and other companies not previously studied for HLS, may thus continue development in hopes of being on-ramped for future recurring missions to the surface of the moon.