NASA's Moon ship and rocket seem to be working well, so what about the landers?

As we have been reporting on Ars, NASA's Artemis II lunar mission has been going rather well so far. Of course, Orion's big test is yet to come with the fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere on Friday. But so far, it's looking like the rocket and spaceship needed for a lunar landing are getting there for NASA.

The biggest remaining piece of the architecture, therefore, is a lunar lander. Known in NASA parlance as the Human Landing System, or HLS, the space agency has contracted with...