NASA signs $590M in moon deals; total program cost unknown

NASA awarded $590.4 million in new Moon Base lander contracts Tuesday, but the agency has not disclosed what its broader Moon-to-Mars program will cost taxpayers. It's a question NASA has not answered for more than a month. Administrator Jared Isaacman gave no total cost estimate at a May 26 briefing despite direct questions from reporters. NASA has also not updated a $20 billion, seven-year cost estimate Isaacman gave in March for building the lunar base alone. That figure does not include the broader Moon-to-Mars program. NASA officials responded to a written question from The Center Square seeking that figure by a June 25 deadline, but didn't provide an estimate. The total mission's cost did not come up at Tuesday's briefing. A NASA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday on the total cost of its Moon-to-Mars program before publication. NASA selected three commercial space companies Tuesday to deliver four new science payloads to the lunar surface in late 2028. Astrobotic received $297.9 million for two deliveries. Astrobotic is in the process of being acquired by Voyager Technologies in a deal pending regulatory approval and expected to close in July 2026. Firefly Aerospace received $144.2 million and Intuitive Machines received $148.3 million, each for one delivery, NASA officials said. Each lander will carry three NASA instruments: a camera system that studies how a lander's engine exhaust disturbs lunar dust, a reflector device used for navigation and a radiation monitor. The unanswered question comes a week after NASA's Office of Inspector General reported that contract values on four canceled or repurposed Artemis systems more than doubled, from $2.8 billion to $5.9 billion. The Government Accountability Office has designated NASA acquisition management a high-risk area for more than 30 years. The agency's funding remains contested in Washington. The White House has proposed cutting NASA's budget 23%, from $24.4 billion to $18.8 billion, while the House has advanced legislation keeping funding flat. U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, has said the proposal could not support President Donald Trump's own space exploration goals. NASA and China are racing to land astronauts on the moon. Isaacman told lawmakers in April the competition could be decided "in months, not years," and warned that China aims to reach the lunar surface before the end of the decade. Carlos García-Galán, NASA's Moon Base program manager, said Tuesday the agency is studying how landers' engine plumes disturb lunar dust and could damage equipment already on the surface, with multiple landings planned in quick succession. Without intervention, landing sites would need to sit a mile and a half from other equipment, he said. Isaacman said NASA is also weighing how the human body will hold up in the moon's gravity, about one-sixth of Earth's, after decades of research on the International Space Station in microgravity. The work matters for Mars, he said, where a crewed mission could take nine months one way. "This is the next logical step on the journey," Isaacman said, "where we should be very grateful we have a moon in such proximity to work with." García-Galán said NASA plans to scale its lunar payload capacity over time, from landers carrying 150 to 200 kilograms today to 500 kilograms, then two to three metric tons, and ultimately to Starship-class vehicles capable of carrying roughly 100 metric tons to the lunar surface. A 2024 inspector general audit found delivery costs had already risen to approximately $1.2 million per kilogram, a 20% increase from NASA's original 2019 estimate. NASA's acting inspector general testified before Congress in January 2024 that the Artemis program alone was projected to exceed $93 billion through 2025. The agency has not said how much more the Moon-to-Mars program would add to that figure.