At Kennedy Space Center last weekend, NASA put $10 billion on the table to build America a permanent home on the Moon.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is already lined up for the money.
And NASA just ordered a nuclear-powered rover to prowl the lunar south pole.
Eight Companies Get a Shot at 10 Billion Dollars
NASA unveiled the plan at its MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show on Florida's Space Coast.
Over the next decade, eight companies will compete for up to $10 billion in orders to haul cargo to the lunar surface.
SpaceX made the cut, alongside Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.
That $10 billion is a ceiling, not a check, and the money flows only as NASA hands out individual delivery jobs.
To get moving right away, NASA also bumped its existing lunar delivery contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion.
"We are building the Moon Base mission by mission," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said.
His promise is that American astronauts will land to find the first pieces of their new home already set up.
A Nuclear Rover Built From Mars Spare Parts
The headline grabber is a six-wheeled robot called PROMISE.
It will run on nuclear power and roam the lunar south pole, studying the ground and what lies beneath it – including spots that may hold frozen water.
Water on the Moon means drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel without hauling it all up from Earth.
Blue Origin landed $94 million to fly the rover there aboard its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, plus up to $140 million more if it delivers.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is assembling PROMISE from leftover hardware – spares and test models from the Curiosity and Perseverance programs.
That's taxpayer money already spent, put back to work instead of gathering dust in a warehouse.
NASA is aiming for a late-2028 launch and an 18-month run on the surface.
Musk's company gets a 2028 assignment of its own, using Starship to put communications satellites in the space between Earth and the Moon.
Trump Set the Deadline Last December
None of this happened by accident.
On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order on American space superiority.
It demanded Americans back on the Moon by 2028 and the opening pieces of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030.
It also called for a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface ready for launch by 2030.
Isaacman has credited Trump with handing NASA "the mandate not just to go back to the moon," and says the president keeps pressing him on Mars.
"This time, the goal is not flags and footprints," Isaacman said this spring.
"This time, the goal is to stay."
China and Russia Are Teaming Up at the South Pole
Beijing wants the same real estate.
China is targeting a crewed Moon landing around 2030 and is partnering with Russia on a lasting presence near the lunar south pole.
It has already brought robotic samples home from the Moon and set down heavy hardware on the far side.
Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society didn't sugarcoat it in Fox News coverage this spring: "At the moon, China actually has the advantage right now."
The south pole is the prize because that's where the ice is.
Whoever builds there first gets to write the rules for everyone who comes after.
Artemis Slipped Twice on Bill Nelson's Watch
What fires me up is how much ground America gave away.
Under Joe Biden's NASA chief Bill Nelson, the agency announced in January 2024 that Artemis II would slip to September 2025.
Eleven months later, Nelson pushed it again to April 2026 after engineers found the Orion heat shield cracking and shedding chunks on the Artemis I return.
Nelson knew the stakes.
"It is vital for us to land on the South Pole, so we do not cede a portion of the South Pole to the Chinese," he said.
Yet the calendar kept slipping while Beijing kept building.
Artemis II finally flew around the Moon in April 2026, with Trump back in the White House and Isaacman running NASA.
"We are leveraging the NASA playbook from the 1960s," Isaacman said.
That's the playbook that sent 24 American astronauts to the Moon and walked 12 of them on its surface.
NASA's first phase of the base alone calls for 25 launches and 21 lunar landings.
If the agency hits Trump's 2028 mark, the first boots near the lunar south pole will be American.
And a nuclear rover built from Mars leftovers will be on its way, hunting for ice.
Sources:
- Jasmine Baehr, "NASA unveils $10B moon base contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin join lunar gold rush," Fox Business, November 7, 2026.
- Morgan Phillips, "Trump pushes $20 billion NASA lunar base to beat China to the moon," Fox News, March 28, 2026.
- Taylor Penley, "NASA chief declares America 'absolutely back' in space race, says US will beat China to the moon," Fox News, April 12, 2026.
- Brittany Miller, "NASA announces three new Moon missions as agency races to build permanent lunar base by end of 2026," Fox News, May 26, 2026.
- Esther Bower, "NASA delaying Artemis moon mission again, as space race intensifies with China," FOX 35 Orlando, December 5, 2024.
- "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Launches a New Age of American Space Achievement," The White House, December 18, 2025.
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