Private companies aim to pick up where Apollo program left off

(NewsNation) — Private companies are hustling to get the U.S. back in the moon landing game more than five decades after the Apollo program ended.

Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic Technology is up first with a planned liftoff of a lander Monday aboard a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. Houston’s Intuitive Machines aims to launch a lander in mid-February, hopping a flight with SpaceX.

Astrobotic’s four-legged, 6-foot-tall lander, named Peregrine after the fastest bird, a falcon, will carry 20 research packages to the moon for seven countries, including five for NASA and a shoebox-sized rover for Carnegie Mellon University. Peregrine will aim for the mid-latitudes’ Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, named after the long-ago silica magma that formed the nearby Gruithuisen Domes.

Then there’s Japan, which will attempt to land in two weeks. The Japanese Space Agency’s lander with two toy-size rovers had a big head start, sharing a September launch with an X-ray telescope that stayed behind in orbit around Earth.

Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told NewsNation’s “The Hill” that private companies taking the lead on space exploration is a “recipe for success.”

“When I was an administrator, I said, ‘The U.S. government isn’t going to purchase, own and operate hardware to go to the moon anymore. We’re going to buy services from commercial companies.’”

Bridenstine said private companies can differ costs in ways the federal government cannot.

“We expect each of those private companies to compete for contracts against each other,” he said. “Again, driving down costs and increasing access. So multiple providers competing on cost and innovation.”

While Houston has long been associated with space, Pittsburgh is a newcomer. To commemorate the Steel City, Astrobotic’s lander will carry a Kennywood amusement park token, the winner of a public vote that beat out the Steelers’ Terrible Towel waved at football games, dirt from Moon Township’s Moon Park and a Heinz pickle pin.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.