NASA awards $590 million to commercial firms for lunar base delivery

NASA has granted contracts worth a total of $590 million to three commercial companies—Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines—to deliver scientific instruments and other hardware to the Moon’s surface by the end of 2028. Astrobotic received $297.9 million for two cargo missions, while Firefly and Intuitive Machines were each allocated roughly $144 million for a single mission.

The contracts form part of Phase 1 of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent settlement on the Moon. Voyager Technologies announced a $300 million acquisition of Astrobotic, intending to integrate its propulsion and landing systems into a broader “cislunar” service offering. The three firms have had mixed results so far: Firefly achieved a successful soft landing in March 2025, whereas Astrobotic’s Peregrine mission failed in January 2024 and Intuitive Machines’ Nova‑C lander crashed in February 2024 and again in 2025.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman pledged continued progress after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad. He noted that an alternate launcher could be used for Blue Origin’s planned Blue Moon lander. The overall cost of the lunar base remains uncertain; a prior estimate put construction at $20 billion over seven years, while a recent inspector‑general report said Artemis contract values have more than doubled, with the program potentially exceeding $93 billion by 2025. The Artemis II crewed flight in April marked the first orbital mission around the Moon since Apollo 17.