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| Attribute | Starship HLS Artemis III LEO Demo → Artemis IV Crewed Landing Trust: Agency-primary Last verified Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | ISRO | Blue Origin | SpaceX |
| Prime contractor | ISRO | Blue Origin | SpaceX |
| Status | Landed | In development | In development |
| Customer | ISRO | NASA-CLPS | NASA-HLS |
| Launch date | 2023-07-14 | Delayed indefinitely (was NET 2026-07) — New Glenn grounded | Late 2027 (NET — Artemis III crewed LEO docking demo); first crewed landing Artemis IV (~2028) |
| Landing date | 2023-08-23 | — | — |
| Landing site | Statio Shiv Shakti, 69.37°S — first soft landing near lunar south pole | Lunar south pole region | Lunar south pole (NASA-curated candidate region near 84-90°S) — first surface use Artemis IV |
| Payload | Pragyan rover 27 kg + lander Vikram 1,749 kg (2023-08-23) | 3,000 kg surface payload capacity (21,350 kg wet lander mass) (2026-05-28) | ~100 tonnes to lunar surface (sustained variant target) (2024-04-16) |
| Contract value | ₹6.15B (~$75M USD) (2023-07-14) | — | $2.89B + $1.15B Option B = $4.04B total (2022-11-15) |
| Outcome | First soft landing near the lunar south pole and first lunar landing by ISRO. Pragyan rover traversed ~100 m over 10 lunar days, confirmed sulfur, aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, oxygen at the landing site. Lander 'hopped' to a secondary location demonstrating reusable propulsion. | First flight test of Blue Moon Mark 1. Carries NASA CLPS Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies + Laser Retroreflective Array. Targets 100 m landing precision. Lander completed full-scale thermal-vacuum testing at NASA Plum Brook (Armstrong Test Facility) May 2026 — but the mission is delayed indefinitely: its New Glenn launch vehicle has been grounded since the NG-3 failure on 2026-04-19, and another New Glenn was destroyed in a pre-launch static-fire explosion at LC-36 on 2026-05-28. | Selected April 2021 as sole HLS provider for Artemis III. Architecture requires Super Heavy launch + multiple Starship tanker refueling flights in LEO + transit to NRHO + rendezvous with Orion (SLS). NASA OIG IG-26-004 (March 2026) flagged crew-rescue capability as open risk. October 2025: NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy reopened the Artemis III lander contract to competition due to Starship development pace. In 2026 NASA redefined Artemis III as a crewed HLS docking demonstration in Earth orbit (late 2027 NET), naming the crew — Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas — on June 9, 2026; the first crewed lunar landing moved to Artemis IV (~2028). |
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Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.