NASA Unveils Ambitious 3-Phase, $20 Billion Plan to Build a Permanent Lunar City at the South Pole

NASA on 27 May presented its most comprehensive blueprint yet for Moon Base , a long-term, commercially driven initiative to establish a permanent human settlement at the lunar South Pole . Unveiled at NASA Headquarters in Washington just weeks after the successful Artemis II crewed lunar flyby in April 2026, the programme envisions not a single structure but an evolving, city-like network of habitats, power grids, roads, communication systems and robotic infrastructure spreading across hundreds of square miles of the Moon's surface. The total cost of the initiative stands at approximately $20 billion , to be deployed across seven fiscal years.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described the project as humanity's first outpost on another celestial world, while chief architect Nujoud Merancy characterised the settlement as something that would organically sprawl like a city as construction progresses. Phase 1 will transition from infrequent annual missions to a templated approach generating significant learning through experimentation, dramatically expanding lunar landings and delivering rovers, instruments and technology payloads that test mobility, power systems, communications, navigation and surface operations.

The programme is structured around three distinct phases . Phase 1, running from now through 2029, involves 25 launches, 21 landings and roughly 4,000 kilograms of payload delivered to the lunar surface. Phase 2, spanning 2029 to 2032, scales up to 27 launches, 24 landings and 60,000 kilograms of payload, focused on building permanent infrastructure. Phase 3, from 2033 onward, demands approximately 29 launches delivering 150,000 kilograms of infrastructure, including a 20-kilowatt nuclear reactor and facilities for extracting local oxygen and water from lunar regolith. The final phase is intended to enable the permanent infrastructure necessary to sustain continuous human presence .

The South Pole was selected because scientists believe its permanently shadowed craters contain water ice capable of sustaining astronauts and being converted into rocket propellant. NASA hopes to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028 , with Moon Base serving as the foundation for all future Artemis missions and eventually as a proving ground for human expeditions to Mars.

Unlike Apollo, Moon Base relies heavily on commercial partners. Blue Origin will conduct the first robotic missions, while Astrolab and Lunar Outpost have been contracted to build Lunar Terrain Vehicles. Astrobotic is building a second lander that will deliver over 1,100 pounds of cargo during the Moon Base II mission. For the MoonFall mission, Firefly Aerospace received a $75 million subcontract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to deploy four hopping drones from its Elytra Dark spacecraft, targeting launch no earlier than 2028. The drones will be released approximately 50 kilometres above the South Pole and are designed to last one lunar day, gathering high-resolution imagery and scouting future settlement sites. After each drone's final flight, its payload will continue operating for several months.

The initiative unfolds against a sharpening geopolitical backdrop, as China advances its own International Lunar Research Station programme later this decade. While NASA officials did not explicitly frame Moon Base as a contest, they repeatedly emphasised American leadership and long-term lunar presence. Isaacman's closing declaration was unequivocal: "This time to stay. We will not give up the Moon again."