[FOX] NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar delivery contracts as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent base on the moon.
The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA's commercial lunar program, bringing together private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the moon's south pole.
The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a maximum combined value of $10 billion over 10 years, with the figure representing a ceiling for future task orders, not money already awarded to participating companies.
Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar delivery missions.
"We are building the Moon Base mission by mission," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.
"When our astronauts return to the Moon, they will arrive with the first elements of the Moon Base already waiting for them on the surface."
NASA also increased the maximum value of its existing CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support the initial phase of its Moon base plans.
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