Chairwoman Johnson Statement on NASA’s Artemis Human Landing System Award

Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced it has selected SpaceX to continue development of the Human Landing System (HLS) that will transport astronauts to the lunar surface under the Artemis program.

Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) made the following statement. 

“I am disappointed that the Acting NASA leadership decided to make such a consequential award prior to the arrival of a new permanent NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator. The decision to make the award today also comes despite the obvious need for a re-baselining of NASA’s lunar exploration program, which has no realistic chance of returning U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2024. While work continues on the upcoming Artemis-1 mission, it will be critically important for the new NASA leadership team to carry out its own review of all elements of NASA’s Moon-Mars initiative to ensure that this major national undertaking is put on a sound footing.”