CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA said on Saturday, Nov. 7, that it has selected eight companies for the next phase of its commercial lunar delivery program and will move forward with a nuclear-powered rover named PROMISE, according to a NASA release. The agency announced the awards at an aerospace expo at Kennedy Space Center as part of its plan for a sustained presence at the Moon’s South Pole.
Related: NASA Spotlights De Gerlache-Kocher Massif, a Former Artemis Landing Candidate.
Who was picked
Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX and Voyager Technologies can compete for future delivery missions under the new CLPS 2 contract, NASA said. It is a 10-year contract with a combined maximum value of $10 billion.
NASA also raised the value of the original CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support the first phase of Moon Base work. That contract runs through November 2028, with deliveries allowed through November 2033.
What NASA said
“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the release. He said astronauts will arrive with the first elements of the base already on the surface.
More coverage is in our Science section.
Sources
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