Eye on the Moon Huntsville companies fine-tune Human Landing Systems as NASA decision nears
by Claire Aiello As NASA works to ready the Space Launch System for America’s journey back to the Moon and then on to Mars, three companies are focusing on their work for the Human Landing System (HLS) program, which would take astronauts to the lunar surface. Marshall Space Flight Center manages the HLS program. The office isn’t very large, with about 40 civil servants. The HLS program builds on the concept of competition that was embraced in the Commercial Crew program, and NASA hopes to retain more than one HLS contractor through the development phase of the program. Marshall has outsourced some HLS work to Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center, but the bulk will be done by contractors. The three companies competing are Dynetics, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. Work is taking place right here in Huntsville for two of these projects, so we thought we’d explore HLS and show you what’s happening. We are the Rocket City, after all!