As the U.S. races to beat China to a crewed Moon landing, SpaceX and Blue Origin are locked in a space race of their own. Each company is developing a crew lander for NASA’s Artemis program, but only one can be the first to return American astronauts to the lunar surface.
Those competing spacecraft are Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 (MK2) lander and SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS). NASA hopes to test both landers during Artemis 3—an orbital demonstration mission slated for late 2027—ahead of the Artemis 4 crewed lunar landing attempt scheduled for 2028, but whether Starship HLS will be ready on time remains an open question. According to a recent update, it appears NASA is confident that MK2 will be.
On Thursday, NASA shared a photo of a full-scale prototype of the MK2 crew cabin, which has arrived at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to support training and testing. In a statement, the agency said it and its industry partners will use this prototype for Artemis 3 and 4 mission simulations.
“Blue Origin’s lander, launching uncrewed on top of the company’s New Glenn rocket, will meet astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit,” the statement reads. “Two astronauts will board the Blue Moon crew lander, which will ferry them to the surface and back to other crew members aboard Orion in lunar orbit following the conclusion of their surface stay.”
A favorite comes to light?
Over the past several months, NASA and Blue Origin have been forthcoming with updates on the development of Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1), the cargo lander that will serve as a stepping stone to MK2. The MK1 lander, called Endurance, has completed thermal vacuum testing at Johnson Space Center and is now undergoing additional testing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This testing is in preparation for an MK1 demonstration mission, slated for later this year. That flight will validate hardware and systems that will also be used on the larger, crew-rated MK2. So while Blue Origin still has a long way to go before its human lander is ready to fly, it’s making steady progress.
Starship HLS development has been more of a black box. At the end of October 2025, SpaceX said its HLS team had completed “49 milestones tied to developing its subsystems, infrastructure, and operations needed to land astronauts on the Moon,” but the company has not provided a detailed update since then.
The biggest hurdle to HLS development is getting Starship V3 off the ground, as HLS will essentially be a modified version of the V3 upper stage. SpaceX performed a full-thrust static fire test of the booster on Thursday and is reportedly targeting May 15 for the inaugural launch. Flying this enormously powerful rocket regularly, and demonstrating on-orbit docking and refueling, will be key to HLS progress.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers will launch aboard New Glenn. The company hopes to ramp up the rocket’s launch cadence this year, but it’s been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration since its last flight on April 20 because it put a satellite in the wrong orbit. It’s not yet clear whether this could delay Endurance’s first flight, but it’s possible.
Like Starship V3, New Glenn will have to demonstrate regular launches and on-orbit docking and refueling prior to a crewed Moon landing. Both companies also need to develop and test the life support systems for each lander.
It’s far too early to call this race, but seeing NASA begin Artemis testing training with a Blue Origin lander prototype is an interesting development. The mock-up will enable a series of human-in-the-loop tests, including mission scenarios, mission control communications, spacesuit checkouts, and preparations for simulated moonwalks, according to NASA. It will also allow agency personnel to provide design feedback to Blue Origin’s engineers.
One thing is certain: The next several months will be critical to both Blue Origin’s and SpaceX’s lunar ambitions.
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