NASA Awards Blue Origin and Firefly $220M Contracts Each
NASA picked Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace and other space companies to send robotic landers, rovers and drones to the moon as part of the effort to jumpstart a lunar base before the end of the decade. The U.S. space agency awarded Lunar Outpost and Astrolab contracts worth $220M each for building rovers. The agency also announced that Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering these rovers to the moon's surface using the aerospace firm's uncrewed cargo moon lander, called Mark 1. Each landing and delivery of a rover is worth $234M each for Blue Origin. Carlos Garcia-Galan, a NASA program executive, said Firefly Aerospace's Elytra spacecraft will be transporting the first drones to the moon under the agency's Moonfall program. In afternoon trading following NASA's press conference to announce details of the plans, shares of Firefly are up $9.54, or 19%, to $59.04.
