NASA Orders Moon Base Equipment After Artemis II Success

Less than two months after four astronauts flew around the moon on Artemis II, NASA is already shopping for furniture for our future lunar home.

The space agency awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts Tuesday to four American companies to build the first wave of moon base equipment. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will deliver two landers to the lunar south pole, while Astrolab and Lunar Outpost will build rugged moon buggies to help astronauts explore.

Firefly Aerospace, which successfully landed on the moon last year, gets to make history again by delivering the first drones to another world. All this hardware needs to arrive before astronauts set foot on the surface, currently planned for 2028.

The timeline moves fast from here. Next year's Artemis III mission will have astronauts practice docking with lunar landers in Earth orbit. By mid-2027, NASA targets another crew mission, followed by the actual landing in 2028.

The moon base will grow in three distinct phases. Phase one focuses on getting the basics there: transportation and initial equipment. Phase two, running from 2029 into the early 2030s, builds permanent infrastructure including a power grid that can keep the lights on.

Phase three is when things get really exciting. Sometime in the 2030s, the base will support astronauts for extended stays in specialized habitats, marking humanity's first permanent presence beyond Earth.

The Ripple Effect

NASA's moon base program executive Carlos Garcia-Galan envisions a settlement sprawling across hundreds of square miles. Drones nicknamed MoonFall will mark the perimeter at corner positions, serving as respectful boundary markers for other nations' equipment that might land nearby.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman emphasized the base serves multiple purposes beyond planting a flag. The facility will encourage a lunar economy, enable cutting-edge scientific research, and serve as a proving ground for eventual Mars missions.

The April Artemis II mission already pushed boundaries, with its four-person crew traveling deeper into space than any of the Apollo astronauts did in the 1960s and 70s. Now NASA is building on that momentum, ordering the tools that will turn brief visits into permanent residence.

"For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down," Isaacman said. "We are really just getting started."