NASA plans for up to three more lunar missions before the end of 2026
Key takeaways
- The missions will deliver payloads to the lunar surface and test equipment from Blue Origin and Astrolab.
- NASA NASA has shared a preliminary (and seemingly ambitious) schedule for the first three Moon Base missions.
- Later this year, Moon Base II will use Astrobiotic's Griffin lander to drop off Astrolab's FLIP rover to help the startup design future lunar terrain vehicles.
The missions will deliver payloads to the lunar surface and test equipment from Blue Origin and Astrolab.
NASA NASA has shared a preliminary (and seemingly ambitious) schedule for the first three Moon Base missions. The organization completed its crewed Artemis II mission in April, but that lunar flyby was always just one part of a larger plan to build a permanent presence on the Moon. These upcoming Moon Base missions will be used to test rovers and landers developed as part of new contracts NASA announced alongside its plan, and to study surface conditions for future lunar landings.
The first mission, Moon Base I, is supposed to launch no earlier than fall 2026, and will deliver payloads including a Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument and cameras using a Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander. Later this year, Moon Base II will use Astrobiotic's Griffin lander to drop off Astrolab's FLIP rover to help the startup design future lunar terrain vehicles. Finally, at some other point in 2026, Moon Base III will use Intuitive Machine's Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls and drop off payloads for the European Space Agency and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.