The busy Environmental Test Lab at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville opened its doors Friday for a tour to celebrate NASA’s new lunar exploration partnership with rocket company Blue Origin. The lab is doing its part pressure testing potential hardware and studying the lunar environment astronauts will face when Americans return to the moon’s surface.

NASA announced a $3.4 billion moon lander contract in May with Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The agency has a similar contract with SpaceX to put astronauts and equipment on the moon and hopes for more competition, lower costs, regular landings and ultimately a lunar economy.

For Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer, Friday was also a chance to show that “key capabilities for lander development and habitation systems are a key component of what we do” at the center.

“Nearly $3.4 billion has come through the center under Human Landing System program contracts with a plan for an additional $10 billion over the next five years should things go well, which I anticipate they will,” NASA Human Landing System leader Lisa Watson-Morgan said.

Marshall has “a little over 200 people” supporting the Artemis program in Huntsville and “upwards of 300, 400 more across the agency,” Watson-Morgan said. She is also based at Marshall.

Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, thanked the team for leading the procurement of “another path for a lander for the moon” in Blue Origin. “We have really big goals for Artemis,” Free said. “We want to conduct a mission a year to the lunar surface, taking four crew down for 30 days at a time.”

“These long duration stays will allow us to do unbelievable science, which is at the front of what we’re doing. And developing test technology to send humans to Mars,” Free said. “That’s not said lightly. That’s what we are doing. Bringing on new partners like Blue Origin will help us achieve that cadence.”

Free said Blue Origin’s lander will be used on the Artemis V landing mission. It will ensure competition and capability for future landings, he said. SpaceX will provide the first lander.

Free said them successful uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in November put America at “a different place than we’ve been in this nation’s space program – going back to the moon – in 50-plus years.” NASA now has lunar hardware under construction for missions through Artemis VII, he said.

Watson-Morgan said going to the moon is the kind of “mission people dream of and we’re getting to do it.” She said her team has dealt with “requirement changes, updates and shifts, making sure we are ready for crew safety and working across the agency.”

“This a Marshall-led program, make no bones about that,” Watson-Morgan said, “but we’re using the best from every NASA center and I think that’s what makes it so strong. We’re going with industry and we definitely know how to partner.”

John Couluris, Blue Origin’s vice president for lunar transportation, said his team is honored by the assignment of building a second lander. “I want to thank Huntsville and the Marshall Space Flight Center,” Couluris said. “The sacrifices that have been made to get us forward to where we are today have been incredible.”

Couluris talked about the Marshall rocket engine test stands the company uses now and its 600,000-square-foot Huntsville rocket engine factory with 1,200 employees. “We’re growing by leaps and bounds,” he said.

“The moon, though, is for everyone,” Couluris said. It crosses “all people’s motivations.”

“That’s why Blue Origin takes the encouragement of exploration so seriously and why we invest in the Club for the Future, our non-profit educational outreach group,” he said, also noting its support for the (U.S.) Space & Rocket Center.