We are permanently here and we are not giving it up
Fifty-four years after the last human footprints were pressed into lunar dust, NASA has unveiled a twenty-billion-dollar architecture to ensure the next ones never fully leave. Three coordinated missions, launching as early as this fall, will lay the physical and technological groundwork for a permanent Moon Base — with crewed landings targeted for 2028 and continuous human habitation by 2032. This is not the story of another expedition; it is the opening chapter of humanity's first attempt to settle another world.
- NASA has committed twenty billion dollars and a three-mission blueprint to transform the moon from a destination into a permanent address for humanity.
- Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander will carry the first payload to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge as early as this September, testing the precision landing and soil-disturbance data that crewed missions cannot afford to guess at.
- A second mission aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander will deploy Astrolab's FLIP rover, stress-testing the mobility systems that astronauts will depend on when they arrive in 2028 — failure here ripples forward through every phase that follows.
- International partners from Europe and South Korea are already embedded in the third mission, signaling that this settlement, if it holds, will belong to more than one flag.
- By 2032, NASA envisions not milestones but rhythms — routine crew rotations, continuous surface operations, the quiet normalcy of a place where people simply live.
Four astronauts looped around the moon in April aboard Artemis II — the first humans beyond Earth's orbit in fifty-four years — and it was understood to be a rehearsal. Now NASA has announced what the performance looks like: a twenty-billion-dollar, three-mission plan to build humanity's first permanent lunar base, with astronauts landing in 2028 and sustained habitation beginning by 2032.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman presented the architecture at a press conference on Tuesday. The first mission, Moon Base I, will launch no earlier than September using Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander, touching down on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge with stereo cameras to study how rocket thrusters disturb lunar soil and a laser retroreflective array to sharpen orbital navigation. These are not curiosities — they are the proof-of-concept that makes crewed landings survivable.
Moon Base II will follow aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander, delivering over 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab's FLIP rover to validate the mobility systems future astronauts will rely on. Moon Base III will carry NASA's Lunar Vertex payload to investigate the moon's enigmatic magnetic swirls, alongside instruments from the European and Korean space agencies — making the endeavor unmistakably international in character.
The plan unfolds in three phases: testing and preparation through the next three years, permanent infrastructure construction from 2029 to 2032, and then open-ended sustained operations. Moon Base programme executive Carlos Garcia-Galan put the ambition simply: 'We will be able to say, we are permanently here and we are not giving it up.' The moon has been visited. It has been studied. What NASA is now describing is something the species has never attempted on another world — not an expedition, but a home.
Four astronauts circled the moon in April aboard Artemis II, the first humans to venture beyond Earth's orbit in fifty-four years. It was a test run, a careful loop around the lunar surface before the harder work began. Now NASA has announced what comes next: a twenty-billion-dollar plan to build humanity's first permanent home on another world.
On Tuesday, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman laid out the architecture at a press conference. Three missions, each carrying specific cargo and purpose, will establish what the agency calls Moon Base—a foothold on the lunar surface equipped with rovers, drones, and scientific instruments. The goal is to land astronauts on the moon in 2028, more than fifty years after Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt left the surface in 1972. This time, the plan is not to visit and leave. This time, the plan is to stay.
The first mission, Moon Base I, will launch no earlier than September using Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander. It will touch down on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge carrying specialized equipment designed to reduce risk for the crewed landings that follow. Among the instruments: stereo cameras to study how rocket thrusters disturb the lunar soil, and a laser retroreflective array that will help orbiting spacecraft pinpoint locations with greater precision. These are not experiments for their own sake. They are the groundwork, the proof that humans can operate safely in an environment that offers no margin for error.
Moon Base II, also scheduled for this year, will arrive aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo. The centerpiece is Astrolab's FLIP rover, a vehicle designed to test the mobility systems that future lunar terrain vehicles will depend on. The third mission, Moon Base III, will deliver NASA's Lunar Vertex science payload to investigate lunar swirls—bright, mysterious formations that scientists suspect may be connected to magnetic fields buried beneath the surface. It will also carry instruments from the European Space Agency and the Korean Space Agency, making this a genuinely international undertaking.
The three-mission sequence unfolds across three phases. The first phase, running through the next three years, focuses on testing and preparation. Rovers will be delivered, technologies will be validated, and at least one lunar terrain vehicle will be positioned for the astronauts expected to arrive in 2028. The second phase, from 2029 to 2032, shifts toward building permanent infrastructure—power systems, habitats, the bones of a settlement. The third phase, beginning in 2032 and extending indefinitely, aims for sustained operations: routine crew rotations, continuous surface activity, the rhythms of a place where humans actually live and work.
Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA's moon base programme executive, framed it plainly: "Then we will be able to say, 'Hey, we are permanently here and we are not giving it up.'" It is a statement of intent that carries weight. The moon has been visited. It has been studied from orbit. But it has never been inhabited. What NASA is describing is not an expedition. It is a settlement. It is the beginning of something that, if it succeeds, will not end.
Citas Notables
America is returning to the moon. The Moon Base will be America's and humanity's first outpost on another celestial world.— NASA administrator Jared Isaacman
Then we will be able to say, 'Hey, we are permanently here and we are not giving it up.'— Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA moon base programme executive
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does NASA need a permanent base? Haven't we already been to the moon?
We've visited, yes. But visiting and living are different things. A permanent base lets us learn how to survive there long-term—how to use local resources, how to maintain equipment in that environment, how to keep people healthy. It's the difference between a tourist and a resident.
Twenty billion dollars is a lot of money. What does that actually buy?
Equipment, rovers, power systems, the infrastructure to support human life. But also the knowledge. Each mission tests something specific—how thrusters affect the soil, how rovers perform on actual terrain, what those mysterious bright formations on the surface really are. You're building capability piece by piece.
Why the Shackleton Connecting Ridge specifically?
It's strategically valuable. It's near the lunar south pole, where there's evidence of water ice in permanently shadowed craters. Water means drinking water, oxygen, fuel. And the ridge itself offers relatively accessible terrain for landing and operations.
So 2028 is when humans actually land again?
That's the target for Artemis III. But the three missions launching this year are preparing the ground. They're not carrying astronauts yet. They're making sure the place is ready when the astronauts arrive.
And then what? Do people stay there permanently?
Eventually, yes. By 2032, the plan is for routine crew rotations—people arriving, working, leaving, others arriving. Like a research station in Antarctica, but on the moon. That's what "permanently here" means. Not one continuous group, but a continuous presence.