Photo via XPF

An incentive competition designed to accelerate technology developments supporting the commercial creation of a vehicle capable of ferrying cargo or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. Such a vehicle would have direct application to space exploration goals as well as the personal spaceflight industry. Additionally, the prize will help industry to build new vehicles with enhanced safety and performance, and to develop the operational capacity for quick turnaround vertical take-off, vertical landing flight, which will be of significant use to many facets of the commercial launch procurement market.

The remaining Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge purse of $1,650,000, funded by NASA, is divided into two levels: Level One, worth a total of $150,000, and Level Two, worth a total of $1,500,000. To win prize money in either level, a rocket-propelled vehicle with an assigned payload must take-off vertically, climb to a defined altitude, fly for a pre-determined amount of time, then land vertically on a target that is a fixed distance from the take-off point. After remaining at this location for a period of time, the vehicle must take-off, fly for a pre-determined amount of time, and land again on its original launch pad. The primary difference between the two levels will be in the time of flight, the surface terrain at one of the landing sites, and the corresponding degree of difficulty presented for precision landing and servicing of the vehicles.

Project owners + coordinators:
William Pomerantz, senior director
Cristin Lindsay, vice president