NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces plans to develop second Moon lander

NASA has revealed plans to create a second human lunar lander as part of its Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon. The space agency is seeking proposals from commercial space businesses for landers that can transport humans to and from the Moon's orbit and surface, with the objective of having them ready by 2026 or 2027 at the earliest. Artemis, which seeks to place the first woman and person of color on the Moon, already has a contract with commercial partner SpaceX to create a lunar lander.

The space agency awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract in 2021 to convert the company's future Starship vehicle into a lander capable of transporting humans to and from the lunar surface. Both NASA and SpaceX are now attempting to make the first Artemis lunar landing as soon as 2025, while this is deemed implausible. In order to encourage competition and keep costs down, NASA planned to choose two companies to design human lunar landers for Artemis.