NASA unveils $10B Moon base contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin join lunar gold rush | Latest Tech News
NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and six other aerospace corporations are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar supply contracts as the company advances plans to set up a everlasting base on the moon.
The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA’s business lunar program, bringing together personal corporations to ship scientific gear, technology and infrastructure to the moon’s south pole.
The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a most mixed worth of $10 billion over 10 years, with the determine representing a ceiling for future job orders, not money already awarded to taking part corporations.
Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA chosen Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar supply missions.
“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a assertion.
“When our astronauts return to the Moon, they will arrive with the first elements of the Moon Base already waiting for them on the surface.”
NASA announced Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and six other aerospace corporations are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar supply contracts. NASA
NASA officers (l to r) George Alderman, Jared Isaacman, Carlos Garcia-Galan, Nicky Fox, and Danya Ise give a Moon base update on Nov. 7, 2026. Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock
NASA also elevated the utmost worth of its present CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to assist the initial part of its Moon base plans.
Beyond the new contracting framework, Blue Origin secured a separate $94 million base contract to ship NASA’s nuclear-powered PROMISE rover to the lunar South Pole, with an further $140 million accessible through a performance-based option.
The six-wheeled rover, formally named the “Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration,” will study the lunar floor and subsurface, including areas believed to harbor water ice that may help assist a sustained human presence.
An artist’s rendering depicts Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander. Blue Origin
The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a most mixed worth of $10 billion over 10 years. NASA via Getty Images
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will construct the rover utilizing spare flight parts and engineering take a look at fashions from its Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers, an strategy the company says will cut back development prices.
Blue Origin will use its Mark 1 lunar lander to ship the rover, and NASA is focusing on a late-2028 launch for an 18-month mission.
The company also awarded six transportation job orders price roughly $1.3 billion mixed to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space.
Those missions will take a look at applied sciences for transferring cargo between Earth and the Moon, including navigation systems and robotic drones meant to scout potential touchdown areas.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaakman discusses his imaginative and prescient for a moon base at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Nov. 7, 2026. Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock
NASA chosen SpaceX for a separate demonstration under an present lunar logistics contract to deploy communications satellites aboard its Starship rocket into the area between Earth and the Moon in 2028.
The demonstration is meant to help NASA develop communications networks connecting astronauts, mission controllers and future lunar infrastructure.
NASA also announced awards to Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, Redwire and Yank Technologies for parts of a deliberate lunar energy and communications tower.
President Donald Trump meets with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Artemis III crew members in the Oval Office on Oct. 28, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com
The system will mix solar energy and wi-fi energy switch to assist operations on the Moon’s floor.
NASA says the tasks will help set up a sustained American presence on the Moon’s South Pole, with business companions delivering gear and infrastructure needed before astronauts arrive.
The company finally hopes to use its lunar operations as a basis for crewed missions to Mars someday.
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