惯性聚合 高效追踪和阅读你感兴趣的博客、新闻、科技资讯
阅读原文 在惯性聚合中打开

推荐订阅源

Engineering at Meta
Engineering at Meta
J
Java Code Geeks
I
InfoQ
腾讯CDC
Vercel News
Vercel News
IT之家
IT之家
V
Visual Studio Blog
P
Proofpoint News Feed
freeCodeCamp Programming Tutorials: Python, JavaScript, Git & More
G
Google Developers Blog
Cyber Security Advisories - MS-ISAC
Cyber Security Advisories - MS-ISAC
博客园 - 叶小钗
有赞技术团队
有赞技术团队
月光博客
月光博客
Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler
量子位
L
LangChain Blog
B
Blog
Last Week in AI
Last Week in AI
博客园 - 司徒正美
Microsoft Security Blog
Microsoft Security Blog
博客园 - 聂微东
Microsoft Azure Blog
Microsoft Azure Blog
A
About on SuperTechFans

Futurism

Earth May Have Had a Larger Cousin that the Sun Devoured Scientists Baffled by Bizarre "Anomaly" Deep Beneath the Surface of Mars NASA's Powerful New Space Telescope, Just Cleared for Launch, Was Developed by an Intelligence Agency to "Spy on America's Adversaries" Scientists Warn That New Satellites Could Cause Eye Damage for People on the Ground SpaceX Achieves Its First Moon Landing by Accidentally Crashing Into It at 5,400 Miles Per Hour, Causing Huge Explosion and 60-Foot Crater NASA Mars Rover Discovers Field of Mesmerizing Polygons Scientists Discover Massive Alien "Exosatellite" Astronomers Thrilled After Discovering Best Spot Yet to Look for Alien Life You'll Never Guess What Tasty Molecule Astronomers Just Detected In Space Astronomers Horrified by Enormous Mirror Satellite That Reflects Sunlight Back Down to Earth at Night Scientists Say They've Identified an Earth-Like Planet Right Next Door NASA Prepping to Launch Extremely Risky Rescue Mission NASA Has a Major Problem Threatening Its Entire Moon Plans NASA Rover Finds "Complex Organic Matter" on Mars Saturn's Icy Moon Is the Perfect Place to Settle, NASA Scientist Argues Scientists Building World's Most Powerful Radio Telescope Deep in the Nevada Desert NASA Loads Moon Rocket onto Giant Trump-Branded Train NASA’s Next Moon Mission Is a Rube Goldberg Machine of Corporate Failure Points Scientists Release Results After Scanning 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals Catholic Church Boots Exorcist After He Said UFOs Are Demons NASA’s James Webb Discovers That 3I/ATLAS Let One Rip as It Passed Through Solar System Scientists Find Chunk of Lost Planet in Desert Paper Claims the “Asteroid” Japan’s Probe Is Approaching Is Actually a Derelict Spacecraft Scientists Say They’ve Cracked Mystery Behind a Dozen Strange Signals From Deep Space Scientists Say They’ve Found Fungi That Turn Dead Martian Soil Into Fertile Cropland The Blue Moon Is Fake. You Are Being Deceived Jeff Bezos’ Rocket Explodes Into Mushroom Cloud, Dealing Massive Blow to NASA’s Moon Plans NASA Releases Sweeping Plans for Moon Base SpaceX Announces Plans to Put Billionaire on First Rocket to Mars James Webb Spots Strange Structure at Core of Distant Galaxy
Jeff Bezos’ Moon Lander Just Completed a Key Test
Victor Tangermann · 2026-05-05 · via Futurism

Blue Origin's first Blue Moon prototype, dubbed Mark 1, recently completed evaluations inside NASA's massive Thermal Vacuum Chamber A.

NASA

Sign up to see the future, today

Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech

NASA is still hoping to land the first Artemis astronauts on the surface of the Moon by the end of 2028, an extremely ambitious plan that will require an extraordinary number of moving parts to perfectly fall into place, and at the right time.

As part of its revised mission lineup, the space agency is planning to test out the landers of both of its private industry’s partners — SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander — in Earth’s orbit sometime in “late 2027” as part of its Artemis 3 mission.

Whether either one will be ready for prime time remains a looming question mark. But at least there’s forward motion: in a new blog post, NASA noted that Blue Origin’s early Blue Moon prototype, dubbed Mark 1 — which will be used for an uncrewed test flight ahead of Artemis 3 — had recently completed evaluations inside the agency’s massive Thermal Vacuum Chamber A at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The tests allow engineers to see how it will withstand the vacuum of space and extreme temperature swings during flight.

Mark 1, the largest lunar lander ever built, won’t actually be part of NASA’s Artemis 3 mission next year — or ever deliver astronauts to the lunar surface. Instead, the Jeff Bezos-led company is hoping to use it to deliver cargo to the Moon’s South Pole before the end of this year as part of a precursor test launch.

The Mark 1 lander will inform the design of Mark 2, an even more formidable landing system that will eventually house a crew for NASA’s long-awaited Artemis missions and help “establish a permanent presence on the Moon,” per Blue Origin’s website.

Still, nobody knows when the first astronauts will step foot inside the first Mark 2 lander once it’s built. For one, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, the rocket designed to carry Blue Moon into orbit, experienced a major setback last month, failing to release a small communications satellite into a high enough orbit, forcing it to be destroyed.

It could’ve ended even worse. According to TechCrunch, Mark 1 was originally meant to be part of the botched launch.

In short, plenty of doubt remains surrounding the rocket’s flightworthiness and ability to deliver the behemoth, 26-foot lander structure and its massive vacuum-rated engine into orbit, let alone support a crew of astronauts.

The leap from Mark 1 to Mark 2 could also pose its own set of challenges as Blue Origin figures out the requirements to ensure that astronauts remain safe while in orbit.

NASA’s official website for its upcoming Artemis 3 mission notes that it will test “one or both” of its commercial landers, leaving the possibility that it may not be part of the test at all.

Meanwhile, SpaceX also has yet to launch and land its Starship spacecraft successfully. Most recently, the Elon Musk-led company fired up the latest iteration, dubbed “Version 3,” on the launchpad ahead of the platform’s 12th test launch, which still doesn’t have an official date. Road closure advisories near SpaceX’s testing facilities suggest it could happen as soon as next week.

More on Artemis: NASA’s Moon Landing Schedule Slipping Horrendously Under Trump