Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, has emerged as a major winner in NASA’s first round of commercial contracts tied to its ambitious $20bn Moon Base program, which aims to establish infrastructure across hundreds of square miles near the lunar south pole.
The US space agency announced on Tuesday that Blue Origin will receive $468mn to develop and operate two uncrewed lunar landers. In addition, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost were each awarded $220mn contracts to design and build unmanned rovers intended for future use by astronauts on the lunar surface.
The latest awards mark the initial phase of NASA’s broader plan to build a sustained human and robotic presence on the Moon. However, the agency did not provide an update on the Artemis crewed missions, which are expected to transport astronauts to the lunar surface in the coming years.
Under current planning, Artemis 3 is scheduled for 2027 and will include docking manoeuvres in Earth’s orbit involving competing crewed landers developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX, the company led by Elon Musk. SpaceX was not included in Tuesday’s round of contract awards.
While SpaceX continues to position itself as a leading candidate to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028 — the first such mission since 1972 — the company is also advancing its Starship program following a successful test flight last week. It is also preparing for a major initial public offering that could value the company at $1.75tn.
Blue Origin, meanwhile, recently faced a technical setback when its New Glenn rocket was grounded in April after the loss of a customer satellite. The vehicle is central to the company’s plans to transport both commercial and government payloads into space.
Following an investigation, US federal regulators approved Blue Origin’s report on the incident last week, clearing the company to resume launches in the near future.
NASA’s administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is deliberately pursuing a diversified strategy involving multiple private-sector partners to accelerate lunar development and reduce dependency on any single system.
He said each mission — whether crewed or uncrewed — will contribute to building long-term capabilities for sustained lunar operations.
“We are dusting off the 1960s Apollo playbook,” Isaacman said, adding that NASA’s goal is to “build the infrastructure to stay” and develop the skills required to operate in extreme lunar conditions.
Carlos García-Galán, who leads NASA’s Moon Base programme, said the planned lunar infrastructure will span vast terrain and function in a distributed manner similar to a city.
He noted that no single location on the Moon can support all operational needs, including science, technology testing, and human habitation.
Different zones will be allocated based on environmental conditions. Sunlit highlands are expected to host power-intensive operations, while permanently shadowed craters may be used for extracting ice deposits that can be converted into water.
Other activities, including lunar mining operations and nuclear power generation, will be physically separated from crew habitation areas for safety and operational efficiency.
Rob Meyerson, former president of Blue Origin and chief executive of space mining company Interlune, said the contract awards reflect a clearer strategic direction from NASA under its current leadership.
He said the latest framework provides commercial partners with a more defined roadmap for future lunar operations.
According to Meyerson, companies now have clearer expectations regarding technological requirements, including the need to develop rovers capable of carrying astronauts once they return to the lunar surface in 2028.
NASA also awarded $75mn to Firefly Aerospace to deliver four drones developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These systems will be used to survey potential landing zones for Artemis missions and later assist in marking the boundaries of the Moon Base.
Isaacman reiterated that the United States remains committed to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims over celestial bodies, including the Moon.
He also acknowledged increasing international competition in lunar exploration, referencing efforts by other nations to establish a presence on the Moon in the coming years.
Without naming countries directly, he said NASA expects cooperation and mutual respect in space exploration as global lunar activity intensifies.
