NASA lines – NASA unveiled three new commercial lunar lander missions for 2028 as part of its Moon Base plan, awarding roughly $600 million total in contracts. The effort is meant to gather crucial data—like dust erosion, navigation signals, and radiation levels—before ast
The moon base is still on the drawing board, but NASA is already paying for the steps that would make it real.
On June 30. the space agency unveiled three more uncrewed lunar lander missions aimed at charting a path to the lunar south pole in the years ahead—before astronauts even set foot on the surface. The push comes with a clear timetable: the new landers are targeted for 2028. as NASA works to move from hardware tests to the longer-term goal of humans living and working on another world.
NASA tied those landers directly to its Moon Base initiative, saying each mission will deliver technology that will help the agency analyze the lunar surface and establish the foundation for a base meant to support astronauts for the long haul.
NASA awarded about $600 million across the three lander contracts, and NASA officials described the work as essential groundwork for an outpost envisioned in multiple phases.
The Moon Base plan, NASA has said, is a $20 billion project intended for the largely unexplored lunar south pole. It would be built up across three phases, combining uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver vehicles, equipment, and infrastructure. Once completed. the base would be where astronauts could live and work long term. pursuing two linked aims: studying the moon and learning how best to send the first humans to Mars.
Alongside this lander expansion, NASA’s update landed weeks after the agency unveiled the crew for the next mission under its Artemis program.
Artemis III is scheduled for 2027. with NASA’s Randy Bresnik. Andre Douglas. and Frank Rubio. joined by the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano. Those four astronauts are due to fly to Earth orbit aboard an Orion vehicle. spending two weeks testing spacesuits and docking capabilities with two commercial lunar landers.
The docking test matters because it sits immediately before NASA’s planned first human moon landing in more than half a century. Artemis III would precede Artemis IV, which is targeted for 2028 and would aim to put humans on the moon for the first time since NASA’s iconic Apollo era ended in 1972.
NASA also emphasized how intertwined the missions are. A successful Artemis III test would set the stage for Artemis IV, while NASA describes the broader moon effort as a stepping stone toward eventually sending the first crewed expeditions to Mars.
The three new lunar lander missions unveiled for 2028 were awarded under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative (CLPS). NASA officials said each of the missions is expected to carry technology designed to support navigation and science data gathering tied to landing safety and longer-term surface planning.
Each lander will be loaded with equipment including cameras meant to help create models predicting lunar dust erosion caused by exhaust from landers during landings. NASA also said laser beam technology will be used to transmit orbit positions of orbiters and landers to support navigation. Spectrometers are also part of the payload mix. characterizing radiation hitting the lunar surface so NASA can design safer crewed missions.
Even before the 2028 landers, NASA has already locked in lander missions for 2026. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander and Astrobotic’s Griffin lander have both been selected for NASA missions in 2026. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander has also been selected for a 2026 mission.
Firefly Aerospace, meanwhile, is under a $75 million contract to build its Elytra spacecraft. That Elytra mission would transport a fleet of NASA’s Moonfall drones to the moon to survey for landing sites for astronauts.
NASA’s work isn’t limited to landers. At a press conference at the end of May. the agency announced contracts for lunar rovers that astronauts could drive once they return. Colorado-based Lunar Outpost and Astrolab of Hawthorne. California. are each set to receive about $220 million to build vehicles designed to have a rover ready on the moon before astronauts return as early as 2028 under the Artemis IV mission.
The sequence of NASA’s preparations has been shaped by one hard reality: the first human landing in decades depends on a chain of test flights, docking demonstrations, and surface environment data—each collected by hardware that never carries astronauts in the moment.
Artemis III is built around that chain. NASA says the mission is complex and involves three separate rocket launches: NASA’s SLS. Blue Origin’s New Glenn. and SpaceX’s Starship. Those launches are designed to get the Orion vehicle and the two commercial lunar landers to orbit for the weeks-long testing period.
The two commercial landers for Artemis III are Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship HLS (human landing system).
If that test mission goes as planned, NASA says Artemis IV would follow. Targeted for 2028, Artemis IV would be the first time humans set foot on the moon since 1972.
For NASA, the urgency is matched by the scope. A moon base that can support long-term living and work wouldn’t just require a landing—it would require an entire operating system for the lunar environment. from dust behavior and radiation levels to navigation and surface operations. The new 2028 landers are NASA’s latest attempt to gather the information and technology needed to make that system possible.
NASA moon base Artemis III Artemis IV Commercial Lunar Payload Services CLPS lunar landers Intuitive Machines Nova-C Astrobotic Griffin Blue Origin Blue Moon SpaceX Starship HLS Moonfall drones Elytra spacecraft Lunar Outpost rover Astrolab rover
Moon base by 2028?? Sounds fake, like when they said flying cars were coming.
So they’re paying $600 million to landers to study moon dust and radiation, but nothing about saving Earth? Idk man. Probably just another boondoggle.
Wait I thought Artemis III was the first real landing, like we’re already going back in 2027 and then base stuff in 2028? Unless these landers are the same mission? Also south pole sounds wild like it’ll be permanently dark or whatever.
NASA: 20 billion moon base, three phases, radiation, navigation signals, dust erosion, etc. But aren’t they supposed to focus on Mars first? Like if they can’t figure out Mars, why are they building a space mall on the moon. And $600 million split between three landers… that’s like small potatoes compared to the 20B right? I’m sure it’ll happen… unless it gets delayed into the 2030s like everything else.