Revision History

NASA has awarded over $1 billion in new contracts for lunar rovers and Moon base infrastructure, selecting Venturi Astrolab and Lunar Outpost to build next-generation terrain vehicles while announcing a phased $20 billion plan for a permanent south pole presence by 2032. But the agency's own inspector general has called the Artemis program's $4.1 billion-per-launch cost "unsustainable," and China's competing lunar program threatens to narrow the gap as both nations race toward continuous habitation on the Moon.