At the MAX POWER aerospace expo held at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA revealed a major expansion of its Moon Base program. The agency announced a suite of contracts that together could total up to $10 billion, aimed at delivering cargo to the lunar South Pole and deploying a nuclear‑powered rover for surface exploration.
Commercial cargo lander competition
Under the new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2 framework, NASA selected eight companies to compete for future lunar surface delivery missions. The firms—Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace‑U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX, and Voyager Technologies—will manage, build, and operate landers that carry NASA science, technology and infrastructure payloads.
The 10‑year, multiple‑award, indefinite‑delivery/indefinite‑quantity master contract has a combined maximum value of $10 billion. In addition, NASA increased the existing CLPS 1.0 contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support Phase One Moon Base objectives. The original CLPS 1.0 contract runs through November 2028, with an extra five‑year extension to complete deliveries through November 2033.
Promising nuclear rover
NASA also moved forward with PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In‑Situ Exploration), a six‑wheeled, nuclear‑powered rover that will land at the South Pole to study surface and subsurface conditions, including ice in permanently shadowed regions. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a Caltech division in Southern California, will manage the mission and build the rover from spare flight components and test models of the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers, reducing cost and schedule risk.
PROMISE will carry a drill capable of extracting regolith about one meter below the surface, spectrometers, temperature and radiation sensors, and cameras. It will also demonstrate NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing system and advanced autonomy. Launch is targeted for late 2028, with an 18‑month mission duration.
Additional task orders and partnerships
Blue Origin received a $94 million base contract, with a performance‑based option for an additional $140 million, to deliver and deploy PROMISE using its Mark 1 lander. NASA also awarded six task orders totaling roughly $1.3 billion under its Venture‑Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin, and Impulse Space. These orders support risk‑reduction flights, delivery of MoonFall drones for South‑Pole surveys, and demonstrations of orbital transfer vehicles to increase cargo capacity.
Launch vehicles slated for use include Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Relativity Space’s Terran R, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with in‑space transportation provided by Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space and Quantum Space.
Communications and power infrastructure
Separately, SpaceX was selected under an existing lunar logistics contract to conduct a Cislunar Communications Deployment Demonstration, launching communications satellites aboard a Starship in 2028 to support future lunar networks.
NASA also awarded contracts for a Mini‑Communications and Solar Tower (miniCAST) system. Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin company) will supply energy storage, Redwire will provide power generation, and Yank Technologies will handle wireless power transfer. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will assemble and test these components, with work beginning within months and a solicitation for fully integrated power systems expected in early 2027.
Looking ahead
The announced contracts and technology developments are intended to support Artemis astronaut missions of increasing complexity to the lunar South Pole, laying the groundwork for a sustained human presence that can eventually serve as a stepping‑stone for crewed missions to Mars.
More information is available on NASA’s Moon Base webpage.
Original reporting: WESH Orlando — read the source article.
