By Joey RouletteCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 14 (Reuters) – After the safe return of four astronauts from a historic flyby of the moon last week, NASA is shifting focus to its next challenge: putting competing lunar landers from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin through a series of rigorous tests ahead of future crewed landings.NASA’s nearly 10-day Artemis II mission marked the first crewed flight of the agency’s multibillion-dollar return-to-the-moon program and sent astronauts farther from Earth than ever before. The mission was designed as a dress rehearsal for later flights, validating the systems needed to carry crews into deep space.AdvertisementAdvertisementBut the milestone has also sharpened attention on what many officials see as one of the program’s biggest remaining risks. The commercial lunar landers must demonstrate that they can perform a complex final descent to the moon and bring astronauts safely home, a feat NASA has not attempted since 1972.NASA aims to put astronauts back on the moon by 2028 as it faces growing competition from China, which plans a crewed lunar landing by 2030. To hedge against delays, the agency selected both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop competing landers, hoping competition and private investment would accelerate progress.”They both look at this as a competition, and that’s a great thing,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in an interview on Monday.Isaacman spoke days after welcoming back the Artemis II astronauts, who splashed down on Friday following their mission around the moon. The flight marked the first crewed launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and the Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin.AdvertisementAdvertisementWhile SLS and Orion are tr …
