NASA announced on 30 June the selection of three commercial partners—Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines—for four new robotic lunar landing missions, with a combined value of $590.4 million. The contracts, which target deliveries to the surface by the end of 2028, mark an acceleration of the agency’s lunar base programme even as its heavy-lift cornerstone, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, remains grounded following a launchpad explosion on 28 May that destroyed the vehicle and damaged the only pad capable of launching it.

Speaking from Washington, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said Blue Origin’s response to the anomaly had been “almost beyond impressive” and that the company aims to return New Glenn to flight before the end of the year. Programme director Carlos García-Galán added that the lunar base timeline could absorb a delay of the first Blue Moon lander launch until mid-2027 without impact, though the agency is also evaluating alternative launch options should the rocket or pad not be ready in time. Blue Origin has decided against rebuilding the damaged pad and will instead adopt a new launch configuration.

The newly awarded missions will carry scientific payloads to the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold water ice that could be converted into fuel and drinking water. The contracts form part of a broader push to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon within six years, a stepping stone for future deep-space voyages. In parallel, NASA is studying a proposal to send an engineering model of its Mars rovers—dubbed Promise—to the Moon. The plutonium-powered vehicle, a twin of Curiosity and Perseverance, would be capable of exploring permanently shadowed craters without relying on solar panels. Separately, researchers in Canada published a policy paper in the journal Ambio calling for a biocontainment facility on the Moon to quarantine samples returned from Mars and other bodies, arguing that no Earth-based laboratory can guarantee absolute containment of unknown alien microorganisms.

In a lighter moment during the briefing, Isaacman promised that if the United States men’s team wins the 2026 World Cup, a match ball would be carried to the lunar surface alongside scientific instruments. The next concrete milestone for the Artemis programme is a wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis 3 rocket on pad 39B later this year, while Blue Origin’s attempt to return New Glenn to flight will be closely watched as a test of the public-private model underpinning the Moon base effort.