On Tuesday, NASA unveiled Ignition, a sweeping overhaul of its lunar exploration program. The plan redirects resources from a planned orbital station to a phased, permanent base on the Moon’s surface.
“This moon base will not appear overnight," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said. "We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions,” he added.
“Semi-habitable infrastructure”
Beginning in 2027, phase one of the plan calls for frequent robotic landings to validate technologies and learn through experimentation. From 2028 to 2032, phase two will focus on “semi-habitable infrastructure,” with near-monthly landings to deliver equipment, explorer vehicles, seven rovers, and more than 54,400 kilograms of payload to secure sites and establish power, logistics, and mobility.
Phase three, running from 2032 to 2036, aims to stand up habitats and systems for long-term stays, supporting four astronauts on four-week surface missions while delivering major capabilities for power generation, manufacturing, and return.
To make crewed sorties frequent and affordable, NASA plans to rely on commercially procured, reusable hardware. The first target is lunar landings every six months while closely aligning with industrial and international partners.
The agency’s crewed flight sequence is being reshaped to support the surface-first pivot.
SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing lunar landers planned for completion in 2028. Intuitive Machines separately won a $180.4 million award under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative to deliver payloads that support the surface buildout.
First lunar landing since 1972
Artemis II will send four astronauts aboard Orion on a lunar orbit mission. NASA has reorganized Artemis III into a low-Earth-orbit test of the Human Landing System. Artemis IV and Artemis V are shifted to 2028 as landing attempts.
The plan envisions astronauts returning to the Moon by 2028 with Artemis IV as the first human lunar landing since 1972. The cadence is intended to accelerate to twice per year after Artemis V, according to The New York Times.
NASA is also advancing a nuclear-electric propulsion mission—Space Reactor 1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom)—planned to launch to Mars by the end of 2028. The system is designed for transport of more cargo over longer distances and supporting missions where solar energy is limited.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy are also developing a nuclear power unit for the Moon. The reactor is planned to be launched inert, and started on the lunar surface to minimize crew radiation exposure.