NASA has launched a dedicated website for its Moon Base programme, the $20 billion plan to build a permanent American outpost near the lunar South Pole. SpaceX’s Starship will play a major role, with the agency pitching the project as humanity’s first lunar home—a place where Artemis astronauts will live and work. The site lays out a three-phase roadmap. Until 2029, NASA will run up to 25 missions, including 21 landings, to scout the region and test technologies. Crewed and autonomous rovers, four MoonFall drones, and nuclear radioisotope heater units built to survive the long lunar night will be put through their paces. Four tons of payload will land in this phase, with comms relays and observation satellites in tow.
From 2026 rovers to fission reactors, the Moon Base build-up scales in three phases
Phase Two, from 2029 to 2032, shifts to semi-permanent infrastructure. Up to 60 tons of cargo will move across 24 landings using low-, medium-, and heavy-class landers. Expanded solar arrays and initial nuclear surface power, potentially including fission reactors, get deployed alongside upgraded rovers and early habitation elements. Phase Three picks up from 2032 onwards, and this is where actual living begins—routine crew rotations, spacious habitation modules, and 38 tons of cargo flown in every year to keep the base running through each two-week lunar night.
Three uncrewed Moon Base missions queue up for 2026, before astronauts ever land
Moon Base I will fly Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander carrying a Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument. Moon Base II will use Astrobotic’s Griffin to drop Astrolab’s FLIP rover. Moon Base III sends Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity to study lunar swirls and carry European and Korean payloads.Astrolab and Lunar Outpost hold lunar terrain vehicle contracts worth $219 million and $220 million. Blue Origin’s $118 million deal covers rover delivery. Artemis II’s crewed flyby wrapped in April, but humans won’t touch the surface until 2028.
