NASA orders moon buggies as Artemis faces a setback

NASA taps – NASA has tapped Astrolab and Lunar Outpost to build the first moon buggies for a planned lunar base near the south pole, with each company set to receive about $220 million. The push comes days after Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded during a t

For decades, people have chased the romance of going to the Moon in the simplest possible way: by driving there.

In Hawthorne. California. Jaret Matthews walked into that spirit with a Zamboni-looking prototype of Astrolab’s 21st-century lunar rover. called FLEX. The machine is designed for a world that doesn’t resemble Apollo’s early explorations. Matthews pointed to the difference in the job—“The Apollo Lunar Rover was a phenomenal machine. but fundamentally it had a very different job to do than the one we’re doing. ” he told CBS News.

NASA is now betting that the next job needs a new kind of vehicle.

Astrolab is one of two companies NASA picked to build the first moon buggies for a moon base program that NASA says it will spend the next seven years developing near the lunar south pole. The other company is Colorado-based Lunar Outpost, which will build a moon buggy called Pegasus.

Both vehicles are tied to a very specific NASA requirement: the final design for NASA will be a four-wheel drive electric vehicle that can either rove on its own or carry two astronauts and supplies. NASA wants it to run for a year, traversing hundreds of miles across the lunar terrain.

Matthews described the balancing act the vehicles have to perform—something that borrows the best of the past while meeting today’s mission needs. The lunar terrain vehicles. he said. have to combine the Apollo Lunar Rover’s ability to carry two suited astronauts with something more modern like the Perseverance Rover on Mars. They also need to be operable remotely from Earth.

NASA is paying Astrolab and Lunar Outpost about $220 million each for the project.

The timing has added an extra layer of pressure. NASA announced its $20 billion plans for the moon base on Tuesday. Two days later, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket exploded during a test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The New Glenn Rocket is expected to play a major role in NASA’s Artemis moon program. Blue Origin is also developing a lunar lander designed to deliver each rover to the lunar surface. It’s unclear how much of a setback the explosion will prove to be for NASA’s moon base plans.

That uncertainty hangs over the same vehicles now being built for a future near the south pole.

Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus, in his conversation with CBS News, framed the opportunity beyond NASA’s single program. He sees a chance for the Moon to host more than one customer, and he linked that idea to the vehicles’ real-world capability.

“NASA wants to be one of many customers,” Cyrus said. “NASA doesn’t want to be the only customer. And the only way you can do that is creating a vehicle that is truly capable enough to allow for new activities on the lunar surface.”

The story of these moon buggies isn’t just engineering on the drawing board—it’s also about what happens when big timelines collide. NASA wants year-long, long-range roving capability near the lunar south pole. Blue Origin’s test failure leaves open how quickly Artemis can keep moving. And for the companies building the rovers—whether they call it FLEX or Pegasus—the next steps will be measured in both performance metrics and how steady the rocket supply chain remains.

NASA moon buggies Artemis Astrolab Lunar Outpost FLEX Pegasus lunar south pole New Glenn Blue Origin lunar rover space technology