STORY: :: NASA's chief says the U.S. 'will never again give up the moon' and announces plans for lunar base
:: Washington, D.C. / March 24, 2026
:: Jared Isaacman, NASA chief
"But this time the goal is not flags and footprints. This time the goal is to stay. Today, we are providing a demand signal for frequent crewed missions well beyond Artemis V. We intend to work with no fewer than two launch providers with the aim of crewed landings every six months with additional opportunities for new entrants in the years ahead. America will never again give up the moon. That brings us to the next step, building the moon base. It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface." // "The moon base will not appear overnight. We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions, working together with commercial and international partners towards a deliberate and achievable plan. Just as there was Mercury in Gemini before Apollo, there will be an evolutionary path to building humanity's first permanent surface outposts beyond Earth."
Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of a day-long event at NASA's Washington headquarters at which he outlined a raft of changes he is making to the agency's flagship moon program Artemis.
The changes imposed by Isaacman on the flagship U.S. moon program in recent weeks are reshaping billions of dollars worth of contracts under the Artemis effort.
That is sending companies scrambling to accommodate the extra urgency as China makes progress toward its own 2030 moon landing.
