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In a flashy “Ignition” event today, NASA firmly recommitted itself to returning astronauts to the Moon, while fleshing out its vision for what administrator Jared Isaacman referred to as “president Trump’s Moon base” during an interview with Fox News.
“NASA is committed to achieving the near‑impossible once again, to return to the Moon before the end of President Trump’s term, build a Moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space,” Isaacman added in an official statement.
The news comes just under a month after NASA significantly reshuffled the upcoming launches of its Artemis program. The significant reframing saw its Artemis 3 mission transformed from a lunar landing attempt into a test of its Human Landing Systems spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, with Artemis 4 and 5, both lunar landing attempts, being moved to some time in 2028.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the agency’s newly-announced plans. As part of the agency’s announcement today, Isaacman touted “frequent robotic landings” and a “nearly monthly cadence of equipment and rovers with scientific payloads landing on the Moon” starting as soon as next year.
Summary of the new 10-year plan. pic.twitter.com/TBjQXPTmtG — Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) March 24, 2026
A neatly summarized graphic NASA showed off during its presentation today shows the vast extent of the agency’s ambitions. Categorized into three phases spanning the next ten years, NASA is planning to send as many as ten spacecraft to the Moon in 2027 alone. In 2028, the agency is looking to launch four landers, three rovers, and four drones, across a total of 12 rocket launches.
To put those dates into perspective, NASA has only started to reach the lunar surface with small commercially-built landers — with varying degrees of success — decades after the conclusion of its historic Apollo program. It’s also still years away from landing humans on the Moon.
During a dizzying run-through of the agency’s plans, NASA’s newly-minted Moon Base program executive Carlos Garcia-Galan elaborated on the armada of planned launches.
In the first phase, spread out across 25 rocket launches and over 8,000 pounds of payloads between now and the end of 2028, NASA is hoping to establish “high-rate, reliable surface access” and a “ground truth for Moon Base landing sites.”
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