Now a straight answer

NASA kills lunar space station to focus on ambitious Moon base

“Everyone wants to be on the surface.”

Eric Berger – Mar 24, 2026 3:01 pm | 257

A lunar base as seen from space. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON, DC—NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Tuesday laid out a sweeping vision for the space agency’s next decade during an event called “Ignition” in which he and other senior leaders set out their exploration plans.

Isaacman and his colleagues shared a number of major announcements, including outlining a nuclear-powered mission to Mars that will release three helicopters there and major changes to commercial space stations. However, most significantly, Isaacman outlined a detailed plan to construct a substantial Moon base over the next decade. He framed it as part of a “great power” challenge, saying that if NASA does not succeed now it will cede the Moon to China.

The base included long-range drones, multiple sources of power, sophisticated communications, permanent habitats, scientific laboratories, local manufacturing, and more. To accomplish this, NASA will work with a broad range of industry partners capable of sending medium-size and large cargos to the lunar surface. Isaacman also confirmed that NASA will no longer build a Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon, but would rather focus all of its energy and resources on the lunar surface.

Won’t sit “idly” by

Is this affordable? One of Isaacman’s fundamental beliefs is that NASA does not have a revenue problem. Rather, it has an expense problem.

“For too long we tried to satisfy every stakeholder, and the results of that are very well documented in Office of the Inspector General reports,” he said. “Billions of dollars wasted. Years lost. Hardware that never launched. Fewer flagship science missions. And fewer astronauts in space, which means fewer kids dressing up as astronauts for Halloween. I don’t like it. The president doesn’t like it. The American people have waited long enough.”

Isaacman spoke inside the Webb Auditorium at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington, DC. In the audience were about 160 officials from industry, politicians, and leaders of foreign space agencies. They will participate in “closed door” briefings on Wednesday to get more details about contract opportunities with the new plans.

But publicly, Isaacman sought to be clear with NASA’s contractors. NASA, he said, needed to do better. And they needed to do better. The space agency is prepared to do everything it can to help its contractors succeed, from embedding subject matter experts to relaxing requirements. But the time for excuses is coming to an end, he said.

“We are not going to sit idly by while schedules slip or budgets are exceeded,” he said. “Expect uncomfortable action if that is what it takes. Because the public has invested $100 billion and has been very patient with America’s return to the Moon. Expectations are rightfully very high. Taxpayers and their representatives in Congress should demand accountability from every leader and every CEO if those expectations are not met.”

Here, Isaacman was referencing NASA’s glacial progress over the last 20 years, with many billions spent on the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket, for a very limited return. For so long NASA has seemed far more interested in building this deep space hardware rather than what it needs to actually accomplish in deep space.

On Tuesday that changed in a major way.

Moon base

One of the highlights on Tuesday was an hourlong presentation by Carlos Garcia-Galan, who formerly was a deputy program manager for the Gateway but now has been installed as leader of the Moon Base initiative. Garcia-Galan, however, did not seem downcast by the end of the Gateway. Rather, he seemed fired up about building sprawling infrastructure on the Moon.

“The Gateway team, both NASA and industry and the international partners, were an awesome team,” he said in an interview afterward. “While I do believe an orbiting outpost has value in our overall exploration goals, this doesn’t mean that we can’t do it later. We need to be focused on the surface, and everyone wants to be on the surface. So I’m super excited, and I’m sure the rest of the Gateway team will be once they start to shift their focus.”

NASA released this rendering of a Moon base that will be built over the next decade. Credit: NASA

Garcia-Galan explained that the lunar base would be established through three phases, using a mix of providers primarily through a scaled up Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Each of these three phases would cost on the order of $10 billion.

The first of these, running through 2028, is estimated to comprise 21 landings, putting a total of 4 metric tons of payload on the Moon, including the VIPER rover to prospect for lunar resources; four “Moon Fall” drones that can travel up to 50 km and reach areas difficult for humans to access; initial versions of a lunar terrain vehicle capable of surviving up to 150 hours without sunlight; and radioisotope heater units. During this phase NASA will also seek to establish two lunar orbital communications satellite constellations.

As part of phase two, running from 2029 to 2032, NASA will seek to secure a site for a lunar base. This phase is projected to entail 27 landings with a total mass of 60 metric tons. These landed payloads would include larger, pressurized rovers, solar and nuclear power sources for surface activities, towers for communication, and excavator rovers.

The final phase, from 2032 to 2036, will establish habitats for long-term human presence, supporting four astronauts for four-week missions. Over the course of 28 landings, NASA would seek to place 150 metric tons of payload on the surface, including fission power, multiple rovers, an “industrial neighborhood” to support in-situ manufacturing, and the capability to return hundreds of kilograms to Earth, such as scientific experiments, critical hardware, and lunar materials.

Providing focus

The Moon base will be NASA’s main exploration focus going forward. Garcia-Galan said part of his job will be bringing together the various efforts at NASA previously focused on or near the Moon and make it clear to all that the work they’re doing must be bent toward supporting a Moon base.

This is why the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program will be scaled up, to accommodate the increased need for frequent access to the Moon with larger cargoes. It’s why Gateway had to go. It’s why NASA will develop not one, but two networks of communications satellites.

With the Ignition event on Tuesday, Isaacman brought this much-needed focus to the space agency. For a long time reporters have joked that NASA stands for “Never A Straight Answer” because it wasn’t quite clear where NASA was going, or why it was doing some of the things it was doing. Now there is a clear plan for people like Garcia-Galan to go and execute.

“It’s very clear that we need to be focused on one thing, not 10 things,” he said. “So for me, this is a game-changer. It’s quite incredible.”

Eric Berger Senior Space Editor

Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.

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