And so, it serves to make some near-term accomplishments while the major programs get their capabilities in place and get ready to launch. You see that the other parts of the budget are going to be affected as they figure out which programs are of higher priority and which ones need to be trimmed like I mentioned, Mars sample return is probably twice over budget by 100% over its life cycle. And so there’s some room there. That’s got to be reprioritized. And then you’ll see some of that trimming coming out of the Science Mission Directorate possibly and Planetary Science in those areas in terms of what can be accomplished with all these other priorities. So you’ll see this mix occurring – but I think in the long term, CLPS is the right type of contract at the right time in history to provide great value to the government and to NASA.
And so I’m hopeful that we’ll see more CLPS-like type contracts as a solution to trimming areas of overspend in NASA budget.
Austin Moeller: Great. That’s helpful. And then it looks like one of your competitors on the CLPS program is trying to get on board a competing launch vehicle, although like the Vulcan hasn’t launched yet. So just what are your – what is your thinking there in terms of that timing and how it might impact additional down selects for future task orders on CLPS?
Stephen Altemus: Well, I think it’s fantastic that the country we have multiple missions aiming to land on the moon in the same kind of time frame. Currently, the Astrobotic is set to launch on Christmas Eve on December 24, with the landing on January 20. If all goes well, they’ll touch down on the 20th. We’re set to launch on January 12 with a landing, believe it or not, on January 19. So we’ll make it there a day ahead, but to have 2 missions flying in space at the same time aiming for the moon is quite incredible, actually. And Austin, you know, I think we’ve talked before about our particular mission and how our propulsion systems design and the kind of trajectory that we fly gets us to the moon at about 4.5 days with about one day of loiter and that’s how we’re able to land roughly a week after we launch, whereas the other trajectories used by other CLPS vendors tend to be a more circuitous wrap to the moon using gravity assist with a lower specific propulsion system that takes up to 30 to 60 days to get to the moon.
And that’s what the disparity is between the 2 type submissions. But we’re excited for our competimates in Astrobotic to make a shot a moon and to be in the space at the same time.
Austin Moeller: And just taking that gravity assist maneuver approach to getting into lunar orbit. I mean that puts you in space longer period of time and you’re subject to more radiation, correct?
Stephen Altemus: That’s right, Austin. And that’s one of the architectural decisions that we made was to minimize the risk of transition through the Van Allen Radiation Belts and minimize those radiation hits to our electronic sensitive electronics. So we make one pass-through and on to the moon where the radiation environment is fundamentally different and somewhat easier than the high concentration of radiation you get in the Van Allen Radiation Belts. So yes, a great observation.
Austin Moeller: Awesome. Thanks for the details.
Stephen Altemus: Thanks, Austin.
Operator: Our next question is from Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital Partners. Please proceed.
Sujeeva Desilva: Hi, Steve. Hi, Eric. A good catch up. I just want to understand the payloads, the customers are committing to you on IM-1, 2 and 3. As the dates move later, and the customer rates increases, does that mean you can take on more payloads and increase your revenue opportunity? Or are all those payloads already committed today? I’m just trying to understand how that works as these missions maybe move on, that can be a tailwind in some ways.
Stephen Altemus: Yes. Good morning, Suji. Actually, the manifest for this particular mission has been set for some time now. And we’ve maximized this mission so that it is sold out. And so we don’t have any opportunity to take on additional payloads. All the payloads that we started with have stayed with us. So that’s a series of NASA payloads and commercial payloads that make up the complement for this mission. And they’ve been quite understanding about the delays we’ve had during the development of this particular mission. They understood that when we started and everybody is getting very excited about our launch date. All the payloads are integrated, all the payloads have been tested both on our offline flat set and on the vehicle. And so everything seems to be working in perfect order and folks are trained and ready for the mission. So looking forward to early January.
Sujeeva Desilva: Okay. And Steve, IM-2 and IM-3 are already fully committed at this point, just to understand?
Stephen Altemus: Yes. IM-2 and IM-3 mission payloads are essentially committed in terms of what we’re taking to the surface. And again, a combination of NASA and commercial and international payloads. The area that we’re still shuffling around and have some capacity that we’re negotiating to take on additional revenues is in the ride share component. As you know, we fly a lander attached to a spacecraft adapter, which is attached to a payload adapter ring. On that payload adapter ring, we can take some 800 kilograms of payloads to a TransLunar Injection orbit. And we have a complement of those payloads but filling out both Mission 2 and Mission 3 and having a complete set of payloads to fly on those. We’re moving those around and adjusting them as payload customers are keenly interested in taking ride share out this far into space, which in the past has not been available to them.
And our missions to the moon provide that availability and that seems to be the fastest-growing area of our Lunar Access business.
Sujeeva Desilva: Okay. Thanks Steve. Thank you.
Stephen Altemus: Thanks, Suji.
Operator: We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.
Stephen Altemus: Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. The coming months are set to be pivotal moment in history for the company and indeed for the United States as a whole. So thank you for listening in, and wish us luck for January.
Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.
