What does Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explosion mean for NASA’s Artemis program? A domino of timeline lapses and strategic failures.

Following NASA’s Artemis rejig, catalyzed Moonbase plans, and the crewed Artemis II lunar flyby earlier this year, the agency has been trying to go full speed in its grand plans for returning US astronauts to the Moon alongside placing of long duration infrastructure. It’s to that latter end that on May 26, the agency took another necessary step by announcing firm, fixed price contracts being awarded to teams led by Astrolab (a Moon Monday sponsor) and Lunar Outpost respectively for building crew-capable Moon rovers. Each contract is worth about $220 million. These ~1000-kilogram “Lunar Terrain Vehicles” (LTVs) will be more advanced than the rover driven by Apollo astronauts, capable of long range exploration and site scouting with onboard instruments. They will also tout autonomous driving or remote operations, useful for when astronauts are not around. To deliver these rovers on the Moon, NASA awarded Blue Origin contracts worth up to $280.4 million. Two Blue Moon Mark 1 landers…