The U.S. space agency NASA announced on Tuesday an ambitious $20 billion plan to accelerate the return to the Moon by 2028, conduct crewed landings every six months, and build a permanent lunar base in the next seven years. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a phased lunar deployment strategy that will be the most ambitious in history since the Apollo program (1961-1972). The project will involve private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, as well as other international space agencies. Carlos García Galán, a Spaniard and head of the Moon Base program, stated that the new strategy will focus on ensuring a permanent U.S. presence on the lunar surface. In the third phase of the project, the base will have three habitats and will extract resources directly from the satellite. The immediate goal is to land American astronauts on the Moon again in 2028, and after the objectives of Artemis V are met, NASA will be able to conduct crewed landings every six months. The program, detailed on Tuesday at a press conference in Washington, envisions sending the first astronauts to the lunar surface in over half a century and deploying the initial elements of a permanent presence before 2030. The 2028 target date is part of a review of the Artemis program that increases the cadence of crewed missions. Before this milestone, NASA is preparing for the Artemis II flight, the program's first crewed mission, which will send four astronauts on a trajectory around the Moon. Its launch from Florida is set for April, following the recent return of the SLS rocket to the launch pad. In this context, the agency confirmed that the development of the lunar orbital station Gateway will be "paused." Priority will be given to surface infrastructure and transportation systems, although the project is not ruled out for the future. "It should come as no surprise that we are pausing Gateway in its current form to focus on the infrastructure that supports sustained surface operations on the Moon," Isaacman indicated.
