{"id":9588,"date":"2026-03-26T00:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-outlines-ambitious-20-billion-plan-for-moon-base\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:58:18","slug":"nasa-outlines-ambitious-20-billion-plan-for-moon-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-outlines-ambitious-20-billion-plan-for-moon-base\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA outlines ambitious $20 billion plan for moon base"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman speaks during an event where NASA is outlining how the agency is executing President Donald J. Trump\u2019s National Space Policy and accelerating preparations for America\u2019s return to the surface of the Moon by 2028, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. During the event NASA leadership provided updates on mission priorities, including sending the first astronauts to the lunar surface in more than 50 years, establishing the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, getting America underway in space on nuclear propulsion, and other objectives. Image: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the Artemis 2 around-the-moon launch just eight days away, NASA announced ambitious long-range plans Tuesday to spend $20 billion over the next seven years to build a moon base near the lunar south pole featuring habitats, pressurized rovers and nuclear power systems.<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman kicked off a series of meetings with contractors at NASA Headquarters in Washington saying he envisioned launching two moon landing missions per year to establish semi-permanent astronaut occupation on the lunar surface to explore, conduct research and develop the technology needed for eventual flights to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis revised, step-by-step approach to learn, to build muscle memory, to bring down risk and gain confidence is exactly how NASA achieved the near impossible in the 1960s,\u201d he said, referring to the agency\u2019s Apollo program. \u201cBut this time, the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we are providing a demand for frequent crewed missions well beyond (previously announced moon landings in 2028). We intend to work with no fewer than two launch providers with the aim of crewed landings every six months, with additional opportunities for new entrants in the years ahead. America will never again give up the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revised Artemis program envisions a transition from the government owned-and-operated Space Launch System rocket that will send the next several Artemis crews to the moon in favor of competitive commercial rockets like those being developed by SpaceX, Blue Origin and others.<\/p>\n

It also will \u201cpause\u201d a program to build the Gateway space station in lunar orbit and \u201crepurpose\u201d components of that project for surface operations more in keeping with the moon base called for in the Trump administration\u2019s national space policy.<\/p>\n

Along with plans for a moon base, senior NASA managers also outlined work to develop nuclear power systems for use on the moon and Mars to keep astronauts, habitats and other equipment warm while providing the electricity needed for research, construction and daily operations.<\/p>\n

First out of the gate will be the \u201cSkyfall\u201d mission to Mars in 2028 in which a fission reactor \u2014 Space Reactor 1, or SR-1, will power a nuclear-electric propulsion system to deliver three small helicopters that will be dropped in the thin martian atmosphere to fly about and study a possible landing zone for future astronauts.<\/p>\n

SR-1 will be the first in a series of new nuclear power technologies NASA plans to deploy in the next few years on the moon.<\/p>\n

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NASA plans to build a planned moon base in three stages, starting with more frequent astronaut and cargo flights to the moon the develop the infrastructure needed to support long-duration crews. Image: NASA TV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Closer to home, agency managers vowed to continue efforts to encourage development of commercial space stations to keep American astronauts and researchers in low-Earth orbit after the International Space Station is retired in the 2030 timeframe.<\/p>\n

Officials acknowledged the ISS program and commercially-developed crew ferry ships have not generated the private sector interest once envisioned and said the agency was exploring ways to encourage and hasten commercial development.<\/p>\n

That includes allowing more privately financed non-astronauts to conduct research aboard the ISS, \u201cselling\u201d commander slots to qualified non-astronauts and even using the lab as a staging base for assembly of private-sector modules that later could be separated to fly on their own.<\/p>\n

Isaacman said NASA would be able to afford the new Artemis architecture, space nuclear power development, ongoing science missions and new exploration ventures as well as working to facilitate the commercialization of low-Earth orbit with its existing budget, repurposing hardware to focus on the moon and by trimming bureaucratic waste and inefficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people ask us, you know, how are you going to be able to do all this within the resource you have available?\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cAnd I continue to tell them NASA does not necessarily have a top-line problem. We get a lot of resources. We may not always allocate them that efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revised Artemis program was unveiled just a few weeks after Isaacman ordered major changes to near-term missions, adding a flight in low-Earth orbit next year to test rendezvous and docking procedures using Orion crew ships and moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

Based on the results of the Artemis 2 and 3 missions, NASA now plans to launch at least one and possibly two moon landing missions in 2028 \u2014 Artemis 4 and 5 \u2014 using one or both privately developed moon landers before pressing ahead with a steady stream of flights to develop a base on the moon.<\/p>\n

In the process, NASA will forego development of a planned space station in lunar orbit \u2014 the Gateway \u2014 and repurpose modules and systems already under development to serve as components of the planned moon base.<\/p>\n

Under the old architecture, Gateway would have operated in a highly elliptical orbit where Orion crew ships from Earth would meet up with already docked lunar landers for descents to the surface. As it now stands, Orion astronauts will transfer directly to their landers without stopping at an orbital way station.<\/p>\n

Gateway was intended to accommodate the propulsion capabilities of the Orion crew ship and its service module engine, which does not have the power to get into and out of a low-lunar orbit like the one used by Apollo crews.<\/p>\n

What sort of orbits might be possible in the absence of Gateway was not addressed, but NASA is asking its contractors to help come up with workable alternatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cDespite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cshifting NASA workforce priority\u201d to the lunar surface will enable the agency to use the moon as a \u201cproving ground for future Mars initiatives\u201d and that the policy change \u201cdoes not preclude revisiting the orbital outpost in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Planetary Society, a space advocacy organization co-founded by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, estimates NASA will have spent about $107 billion on return-to-the-moon plans through 2026 in inflation-adjusted dollars. That\u2019s thanks in large part to repeated program changes over the past 20 years by successive presidential administrations.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, President George W. Bush ordered NASA to retire the shuttle, build new rockets and return astronauts to the moon by 2020 in what became known as the Constellation program. The Obama administration concluded that program was not sustainable and ordered NASA to focus instead on a flight to a nearby asteroid.<\/p>\n

In his first term, President Trump ordered NASA to shift its focus back to the moon for a proposed 2024 landing in what became known as the Artemis program. The Biden administration generally left Artemis alone, but the program had been slowed by the COVID pandemic, budget shortfalls and a variety of other factors.<\/p>\n

Isaacman has repeatedly talked of Trump\u2019s continued support of the Artemis program, and the revised architecture the administrator outlined Tuesday clearly has the approval of the White House.<\/p>\n

Speaking of past delays and budget overruns, Isaacman said \u201cthe programs we left behind in this effort were not success stories. NASA takes ownership for the shortcomings, but contributing billions more and time that we do not have was not a pathway to success.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A NASA chart sums up the plans and goal announced by agency officials Tuesday at NASA Headquarters. Image: NASA TV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The moon base will be built in three phases. Phase 1 will transition from infrequent, once-a-year moon missions to \u201ca templated approach that will generate significant learning through experimentation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will dramatically expand lunar landings \u2026 delivering rovers, instruments and technology payloads that test mobility, power systems \u2026 communications, navigation, surface operations and all the science payload that can be incorporated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phase 2 will see development of habitats and infrastructure \u201csupporting regular astronaut operations on the surface.\u201d Phase 3 will enable \u201cthe permanent infrastructure necessary to sustain a human presence,\u201d Isaacman said.<\/p>\n

That includes nuclear and solar power systems, crewed and uncrewed rovers, including machines to prepare sites for construction, a cellphone-like communications network, a lunar GPS system and constellations of lunar observation and communications relay satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moon base will not appear overnight,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cWe will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions, working together with commercial and international partners towards a deliberate and achievable plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman made it clear that failure is not an option when it comes to beating China back to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we fail, and should we look on as our rivals achieve their lunar goals ahead of our own, we are not going to celebrate our adherence to excess requirements, policy or bureaucratic process,\u201d he said, adding later that \u201cwe are not going to sit idly by when schedules slip or budgets are exceeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExpect uncomfortable action if that is what it takes, because the public has invested over $100 billion and has been very patient with respect to America\u2019s return to the moon. Expectations are rightfully very high.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman speaks during an event where NASA is outlining how the agency is executing President Donald J. Trump\u2019s National Space Policy and accelerating preparations for America\u2019s return to the surface of the Moon by 2028, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. During the event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,790,720,190],"class_list":["post-9588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-ignition","tag-jared-isaacman","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}