Blue Moon Mark 2

Mission specifications

Operator

Blue Origin

Prime contractor

Blue Origin (with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics on prime team)

Launch

2030 (NET — Artemis V crewed); uncrewed demo 2027

Landing site

Lunar south pole — 30-day surface stays

Customer

NASA-HLS

Payload

20 t reusable / 30 t one-way to surface; crew 2-4 for up to 30 daysas of 2026-01-04^[1]Three BE-7 engines burning LH2/LOX. Paired with Cislunar Transporter space tug built by Lockheed Martin.

Contract value

$3.4Bas of 2023-05-19^[2]NASA Sustaining Lunar Development HLS contract — second provider alongside SpaceX Starship HLS

Key findings

• 1.Aims to be NASA's second, sustaining Human Landing System, designed to carry 2-4 astronauts to the lunar south pole for surface stays of up to 30 days beginning with Artemis V.
• 2.Will use three BE-7 engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, targeting roughly 20 t of payload reusable (or ~30 t one-way) to the lunar surface.
• 3.Plans a reusable architecture paired with a Lockheed Martin-built Cislunar Transporter tug for in-space refueling, intended to lower cost and enable repeat missions on NASA's sustainable lunar pathway.
• 4.Will first fly an uncrewed demonstration to the lunar surface (targeted 2027) that exercises the lander's life-support systems and returns it to lunar orbit before the crewed Artemis V flight.
• 5.Draws on a broad prime team - Blue Origin with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics - under NASA's $3.4B Sustaining Lunar Development contract awarded in May 2023.

Mission outcome

Blue Moon Mark 2 is Blue Origin's in-development sustaining lunar lander, selected in May 2023 as NASA's second HLS provider, with an uncrewed surface demonstration targeted for 2027 and the first crewed flight on Artemis V no earlier than 2030. Development has reached hardware milestones - a full-scale training cabin was delivered to NASA's Johnson Space Center in early 2026 for astronaut training, and the program has completed vacuum-chamber and pressurized suit-test campaigns using Johnson's ARGOS offload system. If it flies as planned, Blue Moon Mark 2 would enable month-long crewed stays at the lunar south pole and give NASA a second, reusable path to the surface alongside Starship HLS.