NASA has announced plans to build a second manned lander on the moon.
The human lunar lander is like a space shuttle in which man can sit and land on the moon.
This will be NASA's second major space flight to send man back to the moon. To build the shuttle, the agency is asking commercial space companies to come up with ideas for shuttles that could take people to orbit the moon and the moon's surface.
NASA aims to have a manned lunar lander by 2026 or early 2027. NASA has already entered into an agreement with commercial partner SpaceX to develop a lander on the moon, with the aim of sending the first woman and a man to the moon.
In 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a 2.9 billion contract to build a future starship shuttle into a lander that could take humans to the moon.
NASA originally wanted to select two companies to develop manned lunar landers to encourage constructive competition between the companies and reduce costs. However, the agency eventually chose SpaceX. In 2021, NASA asked Congress for 3. 3.4 billion to build space vehicles, but received only 8 850 million, or 25 percent of the required cost. As a result, NASA and SpaceX signed a low-cost agreement.