NASA announced new Moon Base contracts and mission plans on November 7, 2026. The work includes lunar-delivery opportunities, a planned South Pole rover and technology demonstrations. NASA’s roadmap places the phase intended to establish a permanent outpost in 2032 and beyond, after earlier phases focused on access, exploration and infrastructure. NASA’s announcement and Moon Base roadmap lay out those separate steps.
What the new contracts and selections cover
NASA selected eight companies as eligible to compete for future lunar surface deliveries through CLPS 2: Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX and Voyager Technologies. The selection makes them eligible to compete; it does not assign a mission to each company.
CLPS 2 is a 10-year, multiple-award framework with a combined maximum value of $10 billion. That figure is the ceiling for lunar deliveries under CLPS 2. NASA also announced six task orders through its VADR launch and transportation contract, worth about $1.3 billion combined. The VADR contract has a separate $5 billion ceiling across its contracts.
The VADR orders went to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space. They cover planned work on communications, navigation and orbital transfers, including the CAPSTONE 02 mission; mobile drone surveys of the lunar South Pole, including MoonFall; and navigation and commercial-transfer demonstrations in multiple cislunar orbits.
PROMISE is a planned robotic mission, not a base
NASA awarded Blue Origin a contract with a $94 million base value to deliver the PROMISE rover, plus a performance-based option worth an additional $140 million. Blue Origin is to use its Mark 1 lander for delivery and deployment. NASA targets a launch in late 2028 and plans an 18-month mission.
PROMISE is a planned six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover for studying conditions at the lunar South Pole. Its planned equipment includes a drill to sample lunar soil, called regolith, to about 1 meter deep, as well as spectrometers, temperature and radiation sensors, visible-light cameras and autonomy technology. NASA says the mission is intended to study surface and subsurface conditions and resource potential, and help assess future landing sites.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will manage and build the rover using spare flight components and engineering test models from Curiosity and Perseverance, along with hardware NASA has assessed for lunar conditions. For readers following the crewed side of NASA’s lunar plans, our earlier Artemis coverage explains the separate mission schedule.
Communications and power work are also planned
NASA selected SpaceX under an existing lunar logistics contract for a cislunar communications demonstration. The agency plans to launch communications satellites aboard Starship in 2028.
The initial miniCAST awards cover components for a planned communications and solar tower. Honeybee Robotics received energy-storage work, Redwire power-generation work and Yank Technologies wireless-power-transfer work. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is to assemble and test the components. NASA also anticipates a separate solicitation for integrated power systems in early 2027.
For the timeline, keep the near-term missions separate from the outpost goal: NASA targets PROMISE for late 2028, while its roadmap places the permanent-outpost phase in 2032 and beyond.
NASA’s roadmap puts the outpost in a later phase
NASA’s roadmap sets Phase One at “Now–2029,” with reliable access, robotic exploration, demonstrations and learning as its aims. Phase Two runs from 2029 to 2032 and is intended to build and expand initial infrastructure. Phase Three begins in 2032 and is intended to assemble a permanent outpost for extended human stays.
The roadmap makes the sequence clear: the 2028 rover and communications targets belong to preparatory work, while the permanent-outpost effort is planned for Phase Three.
