NASA ANNOUNCEMENT OF SECOND HLS CONTRACTOR, May 19, 2023, DC, 10:30 am ET (NASA TV)

Update, May 17:  The time has changed from 10:00 am to 10:30 am ET.

Original Entry: NASA will announce the winner of the second contract for a Human Landing System (HLS) to take astronauts down to and back from the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program on May 19, 2023 at 10:00 am ET.

NASA is procuring human lunar landing services through a Public-Private Partnership rather than developing its own HLS system. It wants two service providers, not just one, for redundancy and competition.

SpaceX was selected as the first HLS service provider in 2021 and will supply landing services for the first two landing missions, Artemis III and Artemis IV.

NASA plans to send crews to the lunar surface about once a year after that as part of  “sustainable” lunar exploration. It calls this second contract the “sustainable” HLS.

The announcement will be made at NASA HQ in Washington, DC and broadcast on NASA TV, the NASA app and NASA Live.

Participants will include:

• NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
• Jim Free, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
• Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager, Human Landing System Program, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama

Blue Origin and Dynetics are the only two companies that have publicly announced they are bidding for the contract, but there may be others.