NASA orders – NASA has begun ordering key hardware for a moon base—landers, rovers, and drones—by awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies. The goal is to have the first wave ready before the Artemis astronauts land as early as 2028.
For the people inside NASA’s Artemis program, the calendar is already tightening. Less than two months after the Artemis II mission delivered a record-breaking lunar flyaround. the agency is moving from planning to procurement—ordering the hardware it says should arrive before the first astronauts step onto the moon as early as 2028.
On Tuesday. NASA outlined the first phase of its moon base plans. awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies. The approach is deliberately practical: landers to place equipment on the surface. rovers to move across it. and drones to watch and map the area from above.
Blue Origin is set to provide a pair of landers designed to deliver moon buggies to the lunar surface near the moon’s south pole. The landers themselves will be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace—whose mission landed successfully on the moon last year—will deliver the first drones.
NASA describes these initial systems as the foundation for a base that isn’t just a landing site, but a growing outpost. The hardware is ideally supposed to be ready ahead of the first Artemis astronauts’ landing, planned for as early as 2028.
That timing matters because NASA’s milestones are built like a ladder. During April’s Artemis II mission. four astronauts flew around the moon. traveling deeper into space than the Apollo moon crews did during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Next year’s Artemis III will include another crew practice session—testing docking NASA’s Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with the lunar landers being developed for crews by Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The Artemis III test flight, including one or two lander dockings in Earth orbit, is described as similar in concept to Apollo 9. That 1969 mission launched a command module and lander to Earth orbit for flight tests, setting the stage for the Apollo 11 landing four months later.
NASA is targeting Artemis III for mid-2027, with a landing by two astronauts following as soon as 2028. After that first crewed landing. the second phase—starting in 2029 and running into the early 2030s—shifts toward building permanent infrastructure. including a power grid. The third phase. which NASA expects to support astronauts for extended stays in specialized permanent habitats. is projected to arrive sometime in the 2030s.
“We’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re permanently here and we’re not giving it up,’” Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA’s moon base program executive, said.
In his vision, the moon base will sprawl across hundreds of square miles, with a perimeter marked by drones. Those territory markers are dubbed MoonFall and stationed at the corners.
Garcia-Galan’s concept is tied to the behavior he expects from spacecraft operating in shared lunar space. Isaacman said these territory markers are meant to be respectful of other countries’ spacecraft and equipment that might be nearby, and that reciprocity is expected.
Isaacman has also framed the effort beyond exploration for exploration’s sake. The goal of the moon base is to encourage a lunar economy while conducting scientific research and laying the foundation for a Mars expedition.
The growing ambitions come with major cost projections. The Planetary Society. a space advocacy organization co-founded by the late astronomer Carl Sagan. estimates NASA will have spent about $107 billion on return-to-the-moon plans through 2026 in inflation-adjusted dollars. with the figure reported by CBS News previously. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman previously said NASA is expected to invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years into the moon base mission.
On Tuesday, Isaacman made it clear the agency views the procurement push as a momentum-building moment.
“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.”
NASA Artemis II Artemis III moon base Blue Origin Astrolab Lunar Outpost Firefly Aerospace lunar drones MoonFall Carlos Garcia-Galan Jared Isaacman Orion capsule south pole Artemis program
Wait so are they actually building the moon base stuff now or just ordering parts? Feels like another “big plan” then delays.
So Blue Origin is doing landers and Firefly does drones… I’m confused because I thought SpaceX had the moon lander contract. Guess NASA is spreading it around? Either way 2028 sounds way too soon.
Astrolab and Lunar Outpost building the landers like a month after Artemis II?? That timeline in the article is all over the place. Also “watch and map from above” like they’re gonna have a Sky Cam on the moon lol. What about protection from radiation? I didn’t see that.
I don’t get it, they’re ordering “rovers and drones” but it says the first astronauts land as early as 2028—so the hardware arrives before them, right? NASA is definitely rushing because Congress hates spending. And if Firefly already landed last year then why do they need more contracts? Feels like money for companies more than science.