NASA awards another US$590 million lunar lander contract to three companies and plans to launch a lunar rover

According to Bloomberg,NASA has selected three more companies to launch robotic landers to the moon as part of the agency's plan to establish a lunar base by 2030. NASA announced on Tuesday that it had awarded two contracts to Astrobotic Technology, totaling approximately $298 million; one contract to Firefly Aerospace, totaling approximately $144 million; and one contract to Intuitive Machines, totaling approximately $148 million. The total value of the three contracts is approximately US$590 million.

NASA

Astrobotic will launch a lander to the moon this year or early 2027, which will be an upgraded version of the company's Peregrine lander. The "Peregrine" lander performed a mission in 2024 but failed.

NASA is still considering"Polar Observation, Mapping and In-situ Exploration Lunar Rover" (Promise)Sent to the moon, the lunar rover is a test version of NASA's Mars exploration rover.

"We already have the hardware, and that's exactly what we should be trying to do, continue to make progress and bring exploration capabilities like Promise to the lunar surface," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at a media briefing.