{"id":1797,"date":"2026-05-26T21:07:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:07:55","slug":"nasa-announces-lunar-rover-other-moon-base-mission-providers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1797","title":{"rendered":"NASA announces lunar rover, other moon base mission providers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA announced which two companies would be tasked to build lunar rovers for its future moon base \u2014as well as the company that will fly them there \u2014 among other plans during an event from its Washington headquarters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Blue Origin\u2019s uncrewed Blue Moon MK1 lander, which will launch from Cape Canaveral atop a New Glenn rocket, was given the go to carry a pair of \u201clunar terrain vehicles,\u201d or rovers, for missions that are part of NASA\u2019s plans to launch before 2030.<\/p>\n

Those lunar rovers will be provided by Hawthorne, California-based Venturi Astrolab with its FLEX rover, and Golden, Colorado-based Lunar Outpost with its Pegasus rover, a smaller version of the Eagle rover that made a stop at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center last year.<\/p>\n

Astrolab is partnered with Axiom Space, Interlune and Odyssey Space Research while Lunar Outpost is partnered with General Motors, Goodyear and Leidos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are embarking upon is extremely challenging, and we know so little from what is a combined 80 hours of lunar astronaut EVA time across the Apollo missions, and that was more than a half century ago,\u201d said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. \u201cSo we are not jumping right into the glass dome moon base as a service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rover awards were originally expected to be announced last fall, but the Artemis program and plans for a moon base have shifted since Isaacman\u2019s confirmation as the head of the agency in December. In March, he held an event called \u201cIgnition\u201d that outlined NASA priorities, including the moon base, which aims to spend an additional $40 million into next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to take an iterative approach, sending a demand signal to industry for a lot of landers and rovers and tech demonstrations and all the scientific payloads these missions can accommodate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NASA launched a new website at nasa.gov\/moonbase to track moon base announcements.<\/p>\n

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The rovers are part of Phase 1 of the moon base plans, with missions through 2029 that aim to secure reliable access to the lunar surface and experiment with technology. NASA so far has announced plans for this phase to feature 25 launches, 21 landings carrying 4 metric tons of hardware.<\/p>\n

Phase 2, which will establish an initial moon base operating capability, will increase that to 60 metric tons for missions flown from 2029-2032. Phase 3 beyond 2032 will expand that to 150 metric tons with a goal of a semi-permanent crew presence on the moon.<\/p>\n

The two rovers will be able to travel a little over 6 mph and have a range of about 200 miles each, which allow for them to travel farther than any previous rover, including those on the moon or Mars.<\/p>\n

Carlos Garc\u00eda-Gal\u00e1n, NASA\u2019s moon base program executive, said the goal would be to have them there ahead of any crewed landings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ll certainly try to line it up, so that crew has an LTV to go explore around, so it\u2019s absolutely an objective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Blue Origin\u2019s two launches, one for each rover, are worth a total of $468 million while each rover company was awarded $220 million.<\/p>\n

Texas-based Intuitive Machines was the odd company out for NASA\u2019s initial rover task orders, although it has several lander mission contract already in play as part of NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program and several more CLPS task orders are expected later this year.<\/p>\n

One other moon base-related program announced was about which company would provide the spacecraft to deliver four \u201cMoonFall\u201d drones being managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, built on the technology used to construct the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. They will deploy together, but then explore the South Pole independently targeting areas that would be too difficult for rovers to access.<\/p>\n

Cedar Park-Texas-based Firefly Aerospace won the award to ferry the drones. It will develop a version of its Dark Elytra spacecraft, the first version of which is already developed and awaiting launch on the company\u2019s next CLPS mission. Firefly was successful with its Blue Ghost lunar lander in 2025 and has its second lander along with the Dark Elytra orbiting transfer vehicle set to launch on the far side of the moon before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

NASA also relabeled several existing CLPS missions set to launch this year as \u201cMoon Base 1,\u201d \u201cMoon Base 2\u201d and \u201cMoon Base 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moon Base 1 is Blue Origin\u2019s first Blue Moon MK1 lander, named Endurance, which is carrying two NASA instruments, and is now targeting launch this fall.<\/p>\n

Moon Base 2 is Astrobotic Technology\u2019s Griffin lander launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy with what would be the largest lander ever launched. One of its payloads will be Astrolab\u2019s FLIP rover.<\/p>\n

Moon Base 3 is Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander on its third CLPS mission. The first two were able to make it to the moon, but both tipped over during landing and had limited success. This mission will carry PRISM, which is four\u00a0NASA payloads headed to the moon\u2019s Reiner Gamma region. Also on board will be a rover and a data relay satellite.<\/p>\n

Isaacman highlighted the importance of Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon MK1 lander\u2019s initial mission, which is headed to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, and could help inform where future Artemis missions might land in on the lunar south pole.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a pathfinder for Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon MK2 lander, which is competing with SpaceX\u2019s Starship to be the chosen lander for the human moon landing Artemis IV mission that could fly in 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission objective is to demonstrate critical capabilities that reduce risk for the human landing system missions,\u201d he said. \u201cOn that note, every mission in support of the lunar base helps us learn and de-risk crewed missions, but this one is especially important because of the role Blue Origin plays in the Artemis program.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NASA announced which two companies would be tasked to build lunar rovers for its future moon base as well as the company that will fly them there among other plans during an event from its Washington headquarters Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\nNASA announces lunar rover, other moon base mission providers - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1797\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NASA announces lunar rover, other moon base mission providers - 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