Less than two months after the Artemis II crew completed a record-breaking lunar flyaround, NASA unveiled the first phase of a multi‑year plan to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. The space agency awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies for the delivery of landers, rovers and drones to the lunar surface, with the first astronauts slated to arrive as early as 2028.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will supply a pair of landers to carry lunar terrain vehicles — essentially high‑tech moon buggies — built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. The vehicles will allow astronauts to traverse the surface around the planned base site at the moon’s south pole. Firefly Aerospace, which landed successfully on the moon last year, won the contract to deliver the first drones, which will scout terrain and assist in base assembly before crews touch down.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency wants all of that robotic hardware on the surface before the first Artemis astronauts arrive. The crewed landing is currently targeted for 2028. In April, four Artemis II astronauts flew around the moon, traveling deeper into space than any human since the Apollo era. Next year, the Artemis III crew will practice docking NASA’s Orion capsule with the lunar landers that Blue Origin and SpaceX are building for crewed missions, testing the maneuvers in Earth orbit before the program attempts a landing.
The contracts mark a concrete step toward NASA’s broader lunar‑base vision, which envisions a sustained outpost capable of supporting weeks‑long science expeditions and serving as a proving ground for eventual human missions to Mars.