NASA announces plans to build Moon Base: 'Humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world'

During a Tuesday event in NASA’s headquarters in Washington, DC, the agency announced new partnerships and contracts to begin construction on NASA's “Moon Base” project.

“The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable."

The Moon Base mission will be divided into three separate phases named simply: Moon Base I, Moon Base II and Moon Base III. These missions will include using NASA’s advanced technology to deliver payloads and equipment that will include a Laser Retroreflective Array which helps spacecraft determine suitable landing locations using laser reflected off the Moon's surface.

NASA will also collaborate with the ESA (European Space Agency) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute as the foreign space agencies provide payloads for NASA’s lunar ambitions.

The space agency also announced updates and a separate mission dubbed “Moonfall” that plans to send four space drones to the Moon to survey landing sites for Artemis Astronauts. These aircraft will gather high resolution images of the Moon's surface over the course of a lunar day to provide much-needed intelligence for NASA. The drones will be transported to the Moon in a prototype spacecraft designed in Southern California by Firefly Aerospace. NASA expects to launch this initiative in 2028.

After the successful Artemis II mission which sent four astronauts on a 10 day mission around the Moon's surface, leaders at NASA plan to send others on more difficult missions to explore the Moon in preparation, ultimately for the first crewed mission to Mars.