NASA is laying the legal groundwork to build its lunar base in 2027

During a wide-ranging interview with former CBS investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman opened his mind about how the space agency intends to start building a lunar base.

“We are going to start immediately…we can do this with uncrewed robotic vehicles and landers and we are going to start in 2027. And I think the public is going to be able to tune in and almost watch us build this space in real time as we start landing on the moon,” Isaacman said. 

A piece in Payload suggests that Isaacman’s plan is to send monthly flights of Commercial Lunar Payload Services scale landers to deploy items like communications equipment and power generation tools, such as a nuclear reactor. Rovers might move lunar regolith around to build landing pads for larger, Human Landing System-sized landers.

Building a lunar base has been U.S. public policy since shortly after the beginning of the second Trump administration. When the current NASA authorization act passes both houses of Congress, it will likely be a matter of public law. SpaceX’s Elon Musk has committed to a lunar base. However, Isaacman’s casual remarks raise some questions,

While the initial building campaign will involve smaller, Commercial Lunar Payload Services-sized landers, eventually NASA will have to scale things up. For a planned crewed lunar landing to take place in early 2028, one or both of the planned moon landers, the SpaceX Starship and the Blue Origin Blue Moon, should........

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