NASA unveils $10B Moon base contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin be part of lunar gold rush

NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and 6 other aerospace firms are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar supply contracts as the company advances plans to ascertain a everlasting base on the moon.

The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA’s commercial lunar program, bringing together personal firms to ship scientific tools, technology and infrastructure to the moon’s south pole.

The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a most mixed worth of $10 billion over 10 years, with the determine representing a ceiling for future job orders, not money already awarded to collaborating firms.

Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA chosen Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar supply missions.

“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a assertion.

“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.”

NASA announced Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and 6 other aerospace firms are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar supply contracts. NASA

NASA officers (l to r) George Alderman, Jared Isaacman, Carlos Garcia-Galan, Nicky Fox, and Danya Ise give a Moon base update on Nov. 7, 2026. Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

NASA also elevated the most worth of its current CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to help the initial section of its Moon base plans.

Beyond the new contracting framework, Blue Origin secured a separate $94 million base contract to ship NASA’s nuclear-powered PROMISE rover to the lunar South Pole, with an extra $140 million out there by a performance-based option.

The six-wheeled rover, formally named the “Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration,” will study the lunar floor and subsurface, including areas believed to harbor water ice that might help help a sustained human presence.

An artist’s rendering depicts Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander. Blue Origin

The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a most mixed worth of $10 billion over 10 years. NASA through Getty Images

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will build the rover utilizing spare flight elements and engineering check fashions from its Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers, an method the company says will cut back development prices.

Blue Origin will use its Mark 1 lunar lander to ship the rover, and NASA is focusing on a late-2028 launch for an 18-month mission.

The company also awarded six transportation job orders value roughly $1.3 billion mixed to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space.

Those missions will check applied sciences for transferring cargo between Earth and the Moon, including navigation programs and robotic drones meant to scout potential touchdown areas.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaakman discusses his imaginative and prescient for a moon base at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Nov. 7, 2026. Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

NASA chosen SpaceX for a separate demonstration under an current lunar logistics contract to deploy communications satellites aboard its Starship rocket into the area between Earth and the Moon in 2028.

The demonstration is meant to help NASA develop communications networks connecting astronauts, mission controllers and future lunar infrastructure.

NASA also announced awards to Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, Redwire and Yank Technologies for elements of a deliberate lunar energy and communications tower.

President Donald Trump meets with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Artemis III crew members in the Oval Office on Oct. 28, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com

The system will mix solar energy and wi-fi energy switch to help operations on the Moon’s floor.

NASA says the initiatives will help set up a sustained American presence on the Moon’s South Pole, with industrial companions delivering tools and infrastructure needed before astronauts arrive.

The company finally hopes to make use of its lunar operations as a basis for crewed missions to Mars at some point.

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