NASA Awards Major Contracts for Lunar Base Logistics, Nuclear-Powered Rover, and Surface Infrastructure

NASA has announced a series of major awards and mission updates to bolster the agency’s lunar exploration, scientific research, and infrastructure capabilities for the Moon Base. These new investments will advance commercial robotic deliveries, a nuclear-powered rover named PROMISE, launch and orbital transfer services, and surface infrastructure, supporting the agency’s collaboration with American industry to establish a sustained presence at the Moon’s South Pole.

The agency unveiled these developments during the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Today’s announcements expand nearly every part of that campaign, using the playbook that carried NASA through its greatest eras: fly often, learn, apply those lessons, and get more better and more capable with every mission. When our astronauts return to the Moon, they will arrive with the first elements of the Moon Base already waiting for them on the surface.”

“In the eight months since Ignition, we have made incredible strides in accomplishing the near impossible: establishing a permanent outpost on the lunar surface,” said Carlos García-Galán, manager of the Moon Base Program. “We have consolidated numerous efforts into a streamlined program, evolving our human exploration architecture into an iterative and sustained campaign for Moon Base technology development and implementation. Most importantly, we have taken action, awarding new contracts and forging new partnerships to accelerate development.”

Moon Base cargo landers

To strengthen the cargo lander network essential for supporting the Moon Base, NASA has selected eight commercial companies for the next phase of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. These companies are eligible to compete for future lunar surface delivery missions under the new CLPS 2 contract:

• Blue Origin
• Firefly Aerospace
• Intuitive Machines
• iSpace US
• Lockheed Martin Space
• Northrop Grumman Space Systems
• SpaceX
• Voyager Technologies

Under the CLPS 2 framework, these companies will manage, build, and operate landers designed to transport NASA science, technology, and infrastructure payloads to the lunar surface.

The CLPS 2 framework is a 10-year, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity master contract with a combined maximum value of $10 billion. NASA has also increased the value of the current CLPS 1.0 contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support initial Phase One Moon Base objectives. The original CLPS contract remains active through November 2028, with an additional five-year extension to complete awarded lunar deliveries through November 2033.

Nuclear-powered Moon rover

NASA has also announced the advancement of the PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration) nuclear-powered rover. Equipped with science instruments and technology demonstrations, this six-wheeled rover is destined for the Moon’s South Pole to characterize the surface and subsurface, assess resource potential, and provide critical data for future landing site selection and infrastructure planning. Capable of operating during long lunar nights and within permanently shadowed regions thought to harbor ice, the nuclear-powered rover is crucial for enabling a sustained human presence on the Moon.

The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a division of Caltech, will manage the mission and construct the rover using a combination of spare flight components and engineering test models from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers. Utilizing proven hardware, software, and operational approaches from Mars missions significantly reduces costs and enables faster integration and testing of the complex PROMISE rover. NASA has verified that the hardware is compatible with the lunar environment and can withstand the harsh conditions near the South Pole.

The PROMISE rover will feature a drill to extract regolith, or lunar dust, to characterize ice and other resources from approximately 3 feet (1 meter) below the surface, along with spectrometers for analyzing chemical composition, temperature and radiation sensors, and visible-light cameras. It will also demonstrate a next-generation, radiation-tolerant computing system—NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing—along with advanced autonomy sensors and algorithms. NASA is targeting a late 2028 launch for PROMISE, with an planned 18-month mission.

To deliver the rover to the lunar South Pole, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a $94 million base contract, with an option period worth an additional $140 million based on performance. This award expands a task order from May 2026 to deliver two lunar terrain vehicles to the Moon. Blue Origin will utilize its Mark 1 lander to deliver and deploy the rover as part of the Moon Base’s first phase.

Launch, transportation awards

Delivering Moon Base infrastructure will require a robust transportation network between Earth and the Moon. Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs) act like long-distance freight trucks, carrying large loads across space, while lunar landers handle the final delivery, bringing supplies, equipment, and infrastructure safely down to the lunar surface.

To demonstrate these critical capabilities, NASA has awarded six task orders under the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. The awards were given to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin, and Impulse Space to integrate and transport Moon Base cargo.

These awards cover three mission types, providing NASA with the flexibility to fly science and technology demonstrations as they become ready:

The first mission type will focus on reducing risks for future long-term human spaceflight during lunar exploration. These missions will verify that communication and navigation methods function correctly during transit from Earth orbit to the Moon, and demonstrate the capability of an OTV to support the delivery of a CLPS lunar lander to a desired orbit. This category will deliver the CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft to deep space to test proximity maneuvers, navigation, and communications around the Moon.

The second category of missions will prepare the lunar South Pole for human exploration by sending a group of highly mobile drones to survey the surface before astronauts arrive. This will enable safer, more informed human missions while demonstrating advanced robotic capabilities. These missions will include the agency’s MoonFall drones, designed to scout areas beyond the reach of traditional rovers, as well as deliver additional Moon Base assets necessary to support Phase One objectives.

The third mission type will focus on reducing risk for future missions by testing navigation technologies and demonstrating operations in multiple cislunar orbits between Earth and the Moon. This will showcase commercial orbital transfer capabilities intended to increase the amount of cargo that future landers can deliver to the lunar surface.

The combined value of the task orders is approximately $1.3 billion, falling under the 10-year VADR indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which has a maximum total value of $5 billion across all contracts. Managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program Office at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center as part of the Commercial Access to Space Program, the VADR contracts provide industry with a more predictable set of mission opportunities while giving NASA access to a broader range of commercial capabilities for future lunar exploration.

Some of these missions will launch aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Relativity Space’s Terran R, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. In-space transportation spacecraft for these missions will be provided by Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, and Quantum Space.

Complementing these in-space transportation demonstrations, NASA has selected SpaceX for the Cislunar Communications Deployment Demonstration under an existing lunar logistics contract. Through a Specialized Delivery Mission task order, SpaceX will launch communications satellites aboard a Starship to cislunar space in 2028. This demonstration will help inform the development of future lunar communications networks that keep astronauts, mission controllers, and the Moon Base connected.

Lunar architecture, infrastructure

To extend infrastructure capabilities on the lunar surface, NASA plans to purchase commercial components for a Mini-Communications and Solar Tower (miniCAST), which will include solar arrays, batteries, and wireless power-transfer hardware. The agency has awarded contracts to Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin company) for energy storage capability, Redwire for power generation, and Yank Technologies, Inc., for wireless power transfer to support the miniCAST initiative.

The miniCAST is designed to combine power and communications capabilities to support future Moon Base activities. Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will assemble and test these systems before they are delivered to the lunar surface.

NASA expects work on these components to begin within months, with the initial effort focusing on individual components rather than a major integrated system. The agency also plans a separate solicitation for fully integrated power systems, anticipated in early 2027.

To support Moon Base development, NASA intends to release a directed call under its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-3 B) solicitation. This effort aims to close architecture-driven, high-priority data gaps, helping NASA gather the information needed to plan future missions, reduce risk, and support technologies and infrastructure for sustained operations on the Moon’s South Pole. The work could include small spacecraft missions, payloads on future Moon Base flights, or the purchase of data collected by commercial partners.

As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to the lunar South Pole to explore more of the Moon than ever before. In addition to providing economic benefits and advancing scientific discovery through its Moon missions, NASA will establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, building a foundation for the first crewed mission to Mars.

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