NASA announced a series of awards and mission updates on November 7 to support its Moon Base program, which aims to establish a sustained presence on the lunar South Pole. The moves include a new phase of commercial cargo deliveries and development of a nuclear-powered rover built from existing Mars hardware.
Under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) 2 framework, NASA selected eight companies eligible to compete for future lunar surface delivery missions: Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX, and Voyager Technologies. The 10-year, multi-award contract has a combined maximum value of about $10 billion. Companies will manage, build, and operate landers carrying NASA science, technology, and infrastructure payloads. The agency also increased the existing CLPS contract value from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support early Moon Base objectives. The original contract remains in place through November 2028, with options to complete deliveries through 2033.
NASA is also proceeding with PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration), a six-wheeled rover powered by a...