SpaceX, Blue Origin land spots on NASA's $10B Moon cargo roster

NASA dropped the news Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show was underway. SpaceX and Blue Origin headline the eight-company list, joined by Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies. The vehicle is CLPS 2, a 10-year multiple-award master contract that hands bidders the entire lander job, from development through flight operations, hauling NASA's scientific, technological and infrastructure cargo to the Moon. „We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,

, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.

Don't picture a $10 billion check. The figure is a cap on what future task orders can add up to, not money already flowing to the companies, according to Fox Business. NASA also raised the ceiling on the existing CLPS 1.0 contract by $1.6 billion, putting it at $4.2 billion to cover early Phase One Moon Base goals. That contract stays in place through November 2028, with another five years to complete awarded deliveries through November 2033.

Blue Origin walked away with more than a seat at the table. It scored a $94 million base contract, plus a $140 million option tied to performance, to drop the nuclear-powered PROMISE rover at the Moon's South Pole using its Mark 1 lander. NASA wants the six-wheeled rover flying in late 2028 and operating for 18 months. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will assemble it from leftover hardware and test units built for the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers.

Another six task orders, worth about $1.3 billion combined, went to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space. They fall under NASA's VADR launch services contract and cover Moon Base cargo transport plus demonstrations of in-space transportation. Some missions will ride Blue Origin's New Glenn, Relativity Space's Terran R and SpaceX's Falcon 9. SpaceX also got tapped to place communications satellites in cislunar space in 2028 using a Starship, under a lunar logistics deal already in place.

For power infrastructure, Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin company), Redwire and Yank Technologies will supply pieces of miniCAST, a solar and communications tower NASA intends to build. Work should begin within months, with a separate solicitation for fully integrated power systems coming in early 2027.