NASA Doubles Down on Moon Base Plans

NASA just put more money behind its plan to turn the moon into a long-term outpost, NBC News reports. The agency on Tuesday handed out nearly $600 million in new contracts to three companies—Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines—to deliver scientific gear to the lunar surface starting in 2028. It's the latest in a series of commercial awards as NASA targets about $20 billion in spending over seven years to prep for a lunar base, focusing on testing tech and scouting building sites, especially near the south pole. These contracts are part of the first phase, which involves NASA showing it can reliably get landers on the moon safely, Reuters reports.

Astrobotic will build two additional landers, after having now been granted more than $600 million over the past six years for other lunar hardware, while Firefly and Intuitive Machines will each fly upgraded versions of existing vehicles that have previously gone to space. NASA is also weighing sending a test Mars rover, dubbed Promise, to the moon and plans to solicit more payload proposals soon, even as a Blue Origin moon mission likely slips to next year after a launch pad explosion last month. NASA wants to begin construction on a lunar base in 2029, Phys.org reports.