NASA prioritizes a permanent lunar base after a first moon landing in 2028

Washington.- NASA unveiled a plan this Tuesday to establish a permanent base on the moon in seven years, an ambitious roadmap that for the moment excludes space stations and requires that in 2028 an intense schedule of manned lunar landings begins, something that no nation has attempted in half a century. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced at a press conference a phased lunar deployment strategy that will be the most ambitious in history since the Apollo program, between 1961 and 1972, and will cost at least 20 billion dollars over the next seven years.

The space station in lunar orbit is postponed

Isaacman said that in order to address this new accelerated plan, they will pause the Gateway project, which involves establishing a space station in lunar orbit, whose construction involved Northrop Grumman and Vantor. We recommend reading: In return, he proposed a plan divided into three phases that would culminate in three permanent habitats on the moon, several rovers (manufactured by Toyota), a nuclear fission reactor, and facilities to process lunar material, obtain energy, and raw materials to sustain a permanent colony.

The first moon landing since 1972, in early 2028

The essential step for this ambitious roadmap is the success of the Artemis II mission, which is scheduled to send four astronauts to lunar orbit next week, as well as the operations for Artemis IV to bring humanity back to the Moon in early 2028. NASA will rely on Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and Blue Origin to test transportation and landing vehicles in the coming years and ensure they can meet the intense lunar landing plan proposed today by Isaacman: a lunar mission every six months. "The United States will never leave the Moon again," Isaacman assured, confirmed in his position at the end of 2025.

Get There Before China

China has increased its unmanned vehicle missions on the Moon in recent years and plans to put two taikonauts on the Earth's satellite before 2030. The project is part of the strategy of the administration of US President Donald Trump to transform NASA and promote the private sector linked to its projects within the so-called National Space Policy. The team of the so-called "Ignition" project includes Dana Weigel, responsible for the International Space Station (ISS) program, and the Spaniard Carlos García Galán, who is the main person in charge of the Moon Base program, as the main people in charge of making this strategy a reality within the announced deadlines.