NASA has unveiled the first phase of missions to deliver a sprawling moon base near the lunar south pole, with landers, buggies and drones all commissioned from Blue Origin and Firefly Aerospace.

After the success of Artemis II’s lunar flyaround, NASA is striding ahead with plans to establish a moon base.

The first three of a dozen planned missions were revealed on Tuesday, as well as multiple multi-million dollar contracts given out to American companies to design and deliver new robots and technical equipment.

The first three Moon Base missions are:

• Moon Base I: Scheduled for autumn of this year, this mission will see Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander deliver payloads such as the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument to study how thrusters interact with the Moon’s surface, and the Laser Retroreflective Array, which helps orbiting spacecraft determine a more precise location using reflected laser light. The mission will land on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge to test capabilities that reduce risk for future crewed Artemis landing missions in 2028.
• Moon Base II: Also planned for late 2026, the second mission will utilise Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, including Astrolab’s FLIP rover, to mature mobility systems that inform future lunar terrain vehicle, or LTV, operations.
• Moon Base III: A third mission in 2026 will fly payloads chosen through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon initiative. Lunar Vertex, will fly on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lunar lander and study lunar swirls to further understanding of surface evolution and material behavior under extreme conditions. The mission will include payloads from ESA (European Space Agency) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.

Artemis astronauts are planned to land on the moon as early as 2028

Next year’s Artemis III mission will see astronauts practice docking NASA’s Orion capsule whilst in Earth’s orbit with lunar landers developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

A mission to land two astronauts is expected soon after. Establishing works to build the infrastructure to support the moon base, such as a power grid, will take place from 2029 into the 2030s, with specialised permanent habitats to follow in the later 2030s during the third phase.

“Then we’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re permanently here and we’re not giving it up,’” said NASA’s moon base program executive Carlos Garcia-Galan.

“The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “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. We will go for the science, for all we stand to gain from an economic and technological perspective, for the innovations that will make life better here on Earth, and to prepare for where we will inevitably go next.”

A permanent lunar base is considered a crucial part of any further expeditions into our solar system. Isaacman confirmed that these plans were designed to establish a lunar economy, drive scientific research- and lay foundations for a future mission to Mars.

“For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down,” Isaacman said. “We are really just getting started.”

Over $627m of contracts have been awarded

Awarded under the Phase 1 High Achievability Mission task orders of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract, NASA confirmed two contracts with Astrolab and Lunar Outpost of $219m and $220m, to build and deliver LTVS.

Astrolab’s Crewed Lunar Vehicle, or CLV‑1 is a crewed rover for designed for transporting crew, supplies and support remote operations. It has a mass of rougly 2,000 pounds and can go up to 6 mph on level terrain.

Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus is a lighter, faster update of the Eagle rover, reaching a speedy 9 mph via manual, autonomous, or teleoperated driving.

To deliver these rovers to the Moon’s South Pole region, NASA awarded Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin $188 million with an option period worth $280.4m for two task orders, which includes an option period based on initial phase performance. NASA has the option to  extend the task order for payload delivery.

NASA will invite more vendors for collaboration on lunar technology through on-ramp competitions and is already planning the next round of opportunities to compete for Commercial Lunar Payload Services(CLPS) 1.0 and 2.0 task orders as Phase 1 technology demonstrations are defined and planned for Moon Base missions.