NASA says the crew vehicles to come out of the partnership will "establish a core set of capabilities, stabilize the production process and demonstrate reusability of spacecraft components." Under the contract, NASA will order three Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions III through V for $2.7 billion. (Lockheed Martin is already working on the first two capsules for Artemis missions I and II.) It will then order three more vehicles for Artemis missions VI through VIII for $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2022.

The second batch will cost less, because it will re-use components from the previous three. Artemis V, for instance, will use computers, crew seats and switch panels from Artemis II. Meanwhile, Artemis VI will use the whole crew module, or the habitable part of the spacecraft, from the third mission. Seeing as the program's goal is to go to the Moon and stay there, NASA and Lockheed Martin have to find a way to make the vehicle as cheap as possible through reusability.

Mark Kirasich, Orion Program manager at the Johnson Space Center, said: