Blue Origin lunar lander may launch this fall to help develop NASA moon base

Blue Origin’s lunar lander, *Endurance*, could launch this fall from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, becoming the first privately funded lander to reach the moon. The uncrewed mission will use a New Glenn rocket and deliver cargo to support NASA’s moon base, which aims for initial operations by 2029. Engineers tested the lander in a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The moon base’s first phase includes 25 launches and 21 landings by 2029, delivering four metric tons of cargo, per NASA’s Moon Base program executive Carlos García-Galán. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described the lunar environment as extreme, with temperatures ranging from over 250°F in sunlight to below -400°F in permanently shadowed craters. Blue Origin’s mission follows two other uncrewed landers set to launch by year’s end: Astrobotic’s *Griffin*, carrying the *FLIP* rover and over 1,100 pounds of cargo on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, and Intuitive Machines’ *Nova-C*, delivering payloads for NASA, ESA, and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. Artemis III, targeting mid-2027, will mark NASA’s first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.