NASA Picks Bezos’s Blue Origin Over SpaceX For Key Moon Base Mission

InnovationScienceNASA Picks Bezos’s Blue Origin Over SpaceX For Key Moon Base MissionByJamie Carter,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky.Follow AuthorMay 26, 2026, 05:44pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.An artist’s concept of astronauts working on the lunar surface. NASANASA has selected Blue Origin to play a major role in the agency’s expanding Moon Base initiative, marking a significant step toward establishing a sustained human presence at the lunar South Pole.During a Moon Base event Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, broadcast on YouTube, agency officials unveiled a series of missions, contracts and plans for lunar rovers, robotic missions, drones and commercial partnerships designed to lay the groundwork for long-term lunar operations ahead of crewed Artemis landings later this decade. All will be uncrewed, robotic missions.Jeff Bezos On The MoonCentral to the announcement was Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander, which NASA will use for the first official Moon Base mission targeted for launch no earlier than fall 2026. The contract is worth $188 million, with an option period valued at $280.4 million for two task orders. Blue Origin has an increasingly important role in NASA’s Artemis Program — possibly at the expense of SpaceX — and Endurance has also recently completed testing with NASA. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during the event. He added that NASA would “master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”NASA’s accelerated timeline also reflects growing geopolitical competition in space. China has steadily expanded its lunar exploration efforts through its Chang’...