May 26 (UPI) — On Tuesday, NASA announced contracts for new lunar landers and cargo landers planned for upcoming missions to the moon. The announcement took place at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and included information on some target launch dates and other moon base project milestones.
The agency selected private companies Astrolab and Lunar Outpost for developing lunar rover designs. Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, will provide robotic landers for these rovers.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the moon base will be “America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world.”
“Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable,” Isaacman said.
Astrolab’s contract, worth $219 million per NASA, is for the Crewed Lunar Vehicle 1 design. Lunar Outpost’s contract, worth $220 million, is for its NASA Pegasus rover design.
NASA also announced the first three moon base missions, during which personnel will prepare for sustained operations on the planned permanent moon base. The agency said all three are planned for later in 2026.
The first will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark I Endurance lunar lander to deliver NASA payloads to the moon. The equipment involved will include instruments to study how space vessels’ thrusters interact with the moon’s surface and a laser array that will help orbiting craft determine precise locations.
Blue Origin’s contract is worth $188 million with an option period worth $280.4 million for the lander missions.
During the second mission, NASA will send more than 1,000 pounds of cargo to the moon via the Griffin-1 lander built by Astrobotic. The third mission will include further payloads, including those from the European Space Agency and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, NASA said.
The agency picked Firefly Aerospace to build spacecraft to transport drones to the moon in a project called MoonFall. These drones will fly short hops on the moon’s surface, scouting potential landing sites for astronauts.
NASA eventually aims for a crewed lunar landing for the Artemis 4 astronauts in 2028.
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