WASHINGTON — NASA has unveiled bold plans to establish a permanent base on the moon, with a projected investment of $20 billion, marking a major shift in the agency’s lunar strategy. The announcement came Tuesday as part of a broader effort under the Trump administration’s National Space Policy to secure and maintain American leadership in space.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is moving away from the previously planned “Lunar Gateway” space station orbiting the moon, instead focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface. “America will never again give up the moon,” he said, emphasizing the goal of building a lunar base.
The moon plans are tied to the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the 1970s. The program includes five major missions:
- Artemis I: Uncrewed test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft around the moon (completed Nov. 16, 2022).
- Artemis II: Crewed mission around the moon and back, tentatively scheduled for next week.
- Artemis III: Commercial lander testing in low-Earth orbit, planned for 2027.
- Artemis IV: Crew transfer to the lunar surface via commercial landers, targeted for early 2028.
- Artemis V: Standard SLS lunar surface mission planned for late 2028, with yearly surface landings envisioned thereafter.
The moon base initiative is a three-phase plan:
- Develop and test reusable technologies to increase the frequency of lunar missions.
- Establish semi-habitable infrastructure to support astronaut operations.
- Enable long-duration human presence with scalable habitats, power systems, communications, and surface mobility.
Isaacman described the project as a critical step toward a sustainable human presence on the moon and a future foundation for missions to Mars.
NASA emphasized that commercially procured and reusable hardware will be key to achieving annual lunar surface landings, creating a more sustainable approach than traditional launch methods.
