NASA has awarded nine companies positions on a potential 10-year, $2.6B contract to deliver scientific instruments and other payloads to the Moon.Contractors will compete for payload integration, operations and other delivery support services under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract, NASA said Friday.
The awardees are:
- Astrobotic Technology
- Deep Space Systems
- Draper
- Firefly Aerospace
- Intuitive Machines
- Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) space business
- Masten Space Systems
- Moon Express
- Orbit Beyond
Lockheed said Thursday it will use its McCandless Lunar Lander to deliver commercial payloads to the Moon’s surface under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.
The company’s spacecraft is based on the InSight and Phoenix landers and uses a propulsive landing technique to transport deployable rovers, scientific instruments and other large payloads to the lunar surface.
NASA said it will evaluate bids for the CLPS contract based on technical feasibility, schedule and price and expect payload delivery missions to launch as soon as 2019.
The agency may provide other companies an opportunity to secure a spot on the IDIQ contract through the on-ramping process as it works to look for emerging commercial payload delivery capabilities.
