Private companies have received a new series of NASA contracts for a base at the Moon’s south pole. They will deliver cargo, power and communications equipment, and a rover with a nuclear power source. Blue Origin secured the most roles in these agreements.
Ten Billion Dollars for Lunar Landers
The largest contract concerns the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme. Eight companies have joined its second phase, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Lockheed Martin Space. The contract runs for ten years and has a maximum value of $10 billion, according to NASA.
That figure is a ceiling, not a guarantee of payments. The companies will compete for each individual mission and build their own landers to carry the agency’s instruments and equipment. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the first elements of the base should reach the surface before the arrival of Artemis astronauts, with the campaign being built “mission by mission.”
A Rover for Shadowed Craters
Blue Origin received a separate contract to deliver the Polar Rover for Observations, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration (PROMISE) to the south pole using its own Mark 1 lander. The agreement has a base value of $94 million, with up to an additional $140 million available for good performance.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will manage the mission and assemble the six-wheeled vehicle using flight-spare parts and engineering models of the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers. This approach reduces costs and development time. Launch is scheduled for late 2028, and the rover is expected to operate for 18 months.
Nuclear power is crucial here. The lunar night lasts approximately two Earth weeks, while sunlight never reaches the floors of permanently shadowed craters, where ice may be preserved. Solar panels are therefore useless there. A drill will retrieve soil from a depth of approximately one metre to determine how much ice and other resources it contains.
Launches and Communications
Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space received six additional launch orders worth approximately $1.3 billion in total. Rockets and orbital transfer vehicles will deliver MoonFall drones to the Moon to survey terrain beyond the reach of rovers, while the CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft will be sent into deep space to test navigation and communications.
In 2028, SpaceX will use Starship to deploy communications satellites in cislunar space. NASA will use the results of this flight to develop a network connecting astronauts, mission control and the base.
One Company in Every Role
The agency is purchasing commercial components for a small communications and solar power tower, miniCAST. Honeybee Robotics will supply batteries, Redwire will manufacture solar generators, and Yank Technologies will develop wireless power transmission devices. The system will be assembled and tested at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Taken together, the announced agreements place Blue Origin in almost every role. Jeff Bezos’s company will compete for CLPS deliveries, transport the PROMISE rover to the pole, and has received orders for New Glenn launches and orbital transfer services. Its subsidiary Honeybee Robotics is responsible for the batteries. No other contractor has such a broad presence in the programme, not even SpaceX.
The next step concerns power. In early 2027, NASA will announce a separate competition for fully integrated power systems, with the winner supplying complete installations for the base rather than individual components.
