KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA revealed Saturday that SpaceX, Blue Origin and six other aerospace contractors are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in delivery awards as the agency accelerates its drive to build an enduring lunar outpost.
Announced during the MAX POWER aerospace exposition at Kennedy Space Center, the expanded Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework establishes a 10-year ceiling for task orders rather than direct, upfront payouts, Fox Business reported. The initiative seeks commercial providers to ferry heavy infrastructure, science payloads and survival equipment to the moon’s south pole ahead of planned astronaut arrivals.
Alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the agency selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to participate in the program. NASA also boosted the spending cap on its initial commercial lunar delivery contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion, according to Fox Business.
“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. “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.”
Cargo contracts and rover delivery
Beyond the umbrella bidding framework, NASA issued several immediate task awards to kickstart hardware movements. Blue Origin captured a $94 million primary award, with an additional $140 million performance incentive, to haul the nuclear-powered PROMISE rover to the lunar surface using its Mark 1 lander, Fox Business reported. NASA is targeting a late-2028 launch for the 18-month robotic journey.
Formally known as the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration, the six-wheeled vehicle will investigate lunar soil and search for subsurface water ice. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is assembling the machine out of spare parts and test hardware preserved from the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars missions to curb production costs.
NASA also issued six mobility task orders totaling roughly $1.3 billion among Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space to evaluate freight movement between Earth and the moon. Impulse Space confirmed it will fly two missions starting in 2028 under the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract.
For its first flight, Impulse Space will serve as prime contractor launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to deploy its Mira vehicle in cislunar space. The second mission pairs Impulse with Relativity Space’s Terran R rocket, utilizing Impulse’s Helios kick-stage and a lander built to test cargo delivery profiles to the lunar terrain.
Building surface power and networks
Communication and power networks also secured fresh agency funding. Under an existing logistics arrangement, NASA picked SpaceX to launch communications relay satellites on its Starship rocket into cislunar space in 2028, establishing operational links between ground crews, astronauts and robotic stations.
To solve energy needs on the dark and cratered terrain of the lunar south pole, awards went to Redwire, Yank Technologies and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin subsidiary. Those companies will construct components for a planned surface tower that pairs solar generation with wireless energy broadcasting.
NASA views the lunar base as an operational testing ground for future crewed exploration to Mars. Details regarding launch schedules, individual mission manifests and upcoming task competitions are expected in the weeks ahead.
