Nasa picks Blue Origin, Firefly, and more for lunar base deals
Nasa selected Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, and various other space companies to deploy robotic landers, rovers, and drones to the moon, aligning with the Trump administration’s initiative to accelerate the establishment of a lunar base by the decade’s conclusion. The US space agency has awarded contracts valued at $220 million each to Lunar Outpost and Astrolab for the development of rovers capable of autonomous travel on the moon, as well as navigation by future astronauts across the lunar landscape. The agency also announced that Blue Origin will be responsible for transporting these rovers to the lunar surface utilising the aerospace firm’s uncrewed cargo moon lander, designated as Mark 1. Each landing and delivery of a rover is valued at $234 million for Blue Origin, according to NASA. Carlos García-Galán, a Nasa program executive, stated that Firefly Aerospace’s Elytra spacecraft will be responsible for transporting the initial drones to the moon as part of the agency’s Moonfall program.
This initiative will employ autonomous vehicles to capture images of the lunar surface and create a map for potential landing and base locations. The awards signify the initial tangible actions of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s initiative to propel the agency towards establishing a lunar base, an essential element of President Donald Trump’s national space objectives. Shares of Texas-based Intuitive Machines Inc. experienced a significant decline following the announcement that it was not chosen to construct a future rover. Nevertheless, the company maintains several contracts to deploy its landers to the moon for NASA. Intuitive Machines achieved a historic milestone in 2024 by becoming the first company to successfully land a commercial spacecraft intact on the moon’s surface.
However, the lander’s descent was marred by a tipping incident, which constrained the mission’s overall effectiveness on the lunar surface. A second landing attempt by the company in March of 2025 similarly resulted in a tip-over, thereby truncating the mission. In March, Isaacman articulated the agency’s strategy to allocate over $20 billion in the forthcoming seven years for the establishment of a lunar base, designed for astronauts to reside and conduct operations. The framework involved the deployment of a fleet comprising landers, rovers, drones, power generators, and other essential hardware over the forthcoming decade. The initial phase will involve 25 launches and 21 landings, resulting in the delivery of four metric tonnes of cargo to the lunar surface, according to García-Galán. “We have been working to align all the agency resources across NASA to basically deliver on this objective of building a moon base,” García-Galán stated on Tuesday.
The plan is integrated into NASA’s ongoing Artemis program, which seeks to return humans to the moon in the coming years. In April, the agency’s Artemis II mission successfully transported a crew of four astronauts on a lunar orbit, aimed at evaluating the spacecraft hardware intended for future crewed lunar landings, projected for as early as 2028. The announcement follows Nasa’s recent reorganisation of its internal structure, which was revealed on Friday. This restructuring involves the consolidation of various departments and the promotion of officials into new roles, aimed at concentrating “resources on the most pressing objectives only Nasa is capable of undertaking,” as stated by Isaacman.
