{"id":225570,"date":"2025-11-21T05:05:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/argonaut-lunar-lander-family-grows"},"modified":"2025-11-21T05:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:05:41","slug":"argonaut-lunar-lander-family-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/argonaut-lunar-lander-family-grows","title":{"rendered":"Argonaut lunar lander family grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/argonaut-lunar-lander-family-grows.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, the European Space Agency\u2019s Argonaut lunar lander programme welcomes new members to its growing family. At ESA\u2019s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) near Cologne, Germany, Thales Alenia Space Italy \u2013 the prime contractor for Argonaut\u2019s first lander \u2013 signed agreements with Thales Alenia Space in France, OHB in Germany, and Thales Alenia Space and Nammo in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration\/Exploration\/Argonaut_Europe_s_lunar_lander_programme\" target=\"_blank\">Argonaut<\/a> represents Europe\u2019s autonomous, versatile and reliable access to the Moon. Starting with the first mission in 2030, Argonaut landers will be launched on Ariane 6 rockets, each delivering up to 1.5 tonnes of exploration-enabling cargo to the Moon\u2019s surface, from scientific instruments and rovers to vital resources for astronauts such as food, water and air.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration\/Argonaut_a_first_European_lunar_lander\" target=\"_blank\">ESA selected Thales Alenia Space Italy<\/a> to lead the development of the first Argonaut lander, or Lunar Descent Element. Today\u2019s signing ceremony took place in a symbolic location: the LUNA analogue facility at EAC, home to a full-scale Argonaut model \u2013 a tangible vision of Europe\u2019s future presence on the Moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the European Space Agency\u2019s Argonaut lunar lander programme welcomes new members to its growing family. At ESA\u2019s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) near Cologne, Germany, Thales Alenia Space Italy \u2013 the prime contractor for Argonaut\u2019s first lander \u2013 signed agreements with Thales Alenia Space in France, OHB in Germany, and Thales Alenia Space and Nammo [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}