As SpaceX’s Starship test program continues to gain momentum, the company signed its second commercial deal to deliver a payload to the moon using a lunar lander variant of the massive vehicle.
Starship will deposit Lunar Outpost’s rugged rover, called Eagle, to the lunar surface by 2029, the Colorado-based startup said. Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus declined to provide other details about the mission, such as whether this will be a dedicated flight or part of a ride-share, or the cost. It’s also unclear how Starship will actually transport the rover, which looks like a small pickup truck, from inside the vehicle to the surface.
Lunar Outpost’s rover ambitions got a major boost from NASA earlier this year when the space agency selected it, along with two other teams, for the initial phase of a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) program. The three teams were selected for the one-year contract to advance their rover concepts for potential use by astronauts under NASA’s Artemis program. The 12-month period will culminate in a subsequent competitive request for proposals, where the three companies will then compete for a demonstration task order.
The LTV program has the potentially to be very lucrative: The total potential value of the task orders over the next 13 years is $4.6 billion, though the agency has said that due to budgeting concerns, it is only selecting a single provider.
Even if the team led by Lunar Outpost, which also includes Leidos, General Motors, Goodyear, and MDA Space, is not selected by NASA, Cyrus said the company plans on proceeding with rover development.
“Lunar Outpost Eagle is our flagship vehicle and will be the backbone of outposts on other planetary bodies,” he said in an emailed statement. “Our company has been focused on mobility since inception and the lunar terrain vehicle has accelerated our truly industry leading capabilities which unlock a sustainable presence on the moon and Mars.”
The startup also closed a Series A round for an undisclosed amount last month to support several initiatives, including the rover development.
The new deal for the Starship cargo delivery follows a similar contract SpaceX made last year with Venturi Astrolab — which is also leading a team selected under the LTV program — to deliver its rover to the moon’s surface.
