Key Points
(Bloomberg) -- Three companies won NASA contracts to design and develop vehicles that astronauts may one day drive across the lunar surface, including Intuitive Machines Inc., which recently became the first company to land a privately operated spacecraft intact on the moon..
The other two companies selected are closely held Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab..
The awards are the latest in a series of partnerships that NASA has created as part of its Artemis program, an ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years..
NASA is working with a variety of contractors and companies to create hardware and spacecraft for the Artemis program, including Elon Musks SpaceX, Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. The moon buggy award winners are also working with other companies including Intuitive Machines with Boeing, Lunar Outpost with Lockheed Martin, and Venturi Astrolab with Axiom Space..
Instead, the agency plans to buy rides on the buggies as a service, while the companies that make them are encouraged to use the rovers for commercial purposes outside of NASA. ..
