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

NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar delivery contracts as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent 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 private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the moon’s south pole.The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a maximum combined value of $10 billion over 10 years, with the figure representing a ceiling for future task orders, not money already awarded to participating companies.Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar delivery missions.“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.“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 also increased the maximum value of its existing CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support the initial phase of its Moon base plans.Beyond the new contracting framework, Blue Origin secured a separate $94 million base contract to deliver NASA’s nuclear-powered PROMISE rover to the lunar South Pole, with an additional $140 million available through a performance-based option.The six-wheeled rover, formally named the “Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration,” will examine the lunar surface and subsurface, including regions believed to harbor water ice that could help support a sustained human presence.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will build the rover using spare flight components and engineering test mod...