On Tuesday local time, NASA released an updated roadmap for building a lunar base, and also handed out new orders to several commercial space companies.
(Source: NASA)
During the event, NASA shared three key missions planned for this year, all part of the first phase of their moon base construction plan. This initial phase will run through 2029. Then comes phase two, from 2029 to 2032, where they’ll start assembling semi-permanent facilities. The ultimate goal? Having humans “sustainably present on the lunar surface” by 2032.
So what’s NASA focusing on this year? Two big questions: how to get payloads from Earth to the Moon, and once they’re there, how to move them around on the lunar surface.
Here’s the breakdown. Blue Origin will launch a lander “no earlier than fall 2026” carrying NASA payloads, to test out spacecraft landing technologies.
Next up, Astrobotic’s “Griffin” lander will deliver over 1,100 pounds of cargo to the Moon. That includes Astrolab’s FLIP rover, which will test out mobility on the lunar surface and provide data for future Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) operations.
Oh, and by the way, NASA also awarded Astrolab a $219 million contract to build and deliver the first batch of Lunar Terrain Vehicles. The big target? Deploy both crewed and uncrewed mobility systems to the lunar surface by 2028. Another rover developer, Lunar Outpost, got a $220 million contract too.
NASA says getting multiple lunar rovers out there early in base development will speed up tech validation, help optimize site selection, and cut down operational risks before crewed Artemis missions launch. It’ll also let them assess terrain hazards, move supplies around, pre-deploy resources, and fine-tune the key systems needed for long-term lunar exploration.
Over the next 18 months, the selected companies will finalize their rover designs, run crewed evaluation tests, and get flight-ready hardware certified for actual operations. The finished lunar terrain vehicles will handle autonomous driving, terrain preparation, scientific research, tech demonstrations, and astronaut transport.
To get these rovers to the Moon’s south pole, NASA also gave Blue Origin a $188 million contract (plus a possible $280.4 million option phase tied to two task orders). Whether that option kicks in depends on how well the initial phase goes.
The third mission leans more toward science. Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander will carry research payloads to the Moon to study “lunar swirls” — those bright, wavy patterns on the surface. The goal is to help scientists better understand how the Moon’s surface evolves and how materials behave in extreme environments. This mission will also carry payloads from the European Space Agency and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
NASA also gave an update on a mission called “Landing on the Moon.”
This mission plans to send four drones to the lunar surface. They’ll hop short distances to scout out potential landing sites for future Artemis astronauts.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is handling the design, development, and prototype hardware testing. Meanwhile, NASA has chosen Firefly Aerospace to build the spacecraft that will carry these drones from Earth orbit to the Moon. The target launch date? 2028.
These drones will land independently on the lunar surface and spend a full lunar day doing high-resolution imaging surveys of hard-to-reach terrain.
Finally, NASA said they’ll announce “more robotic lunar missions” and related contracts in the coming months, all focused on “moon base” payload delivery and tech validation.
Marketwise, Intuitive Machines — which lost out on the lunar rover contract — saw its stock spike more than 18% during the day before plunging to close down 8.89%. Meanwhile, Firefly Aerospace held steady and finished up 18.81%.
