Jared Isaacman

NASA has awarded contracts to eight companies to advance the next stage of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, aiming to expand the cargo lander network for the Moon Base. The selected firms include Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX and Voyager. In the same announcement, NASA introduced a nuclear‑powered rover named PROMISE and Administrator Jared Isaacman said the deals broaden nearly every aspect of the Moon Base campaign, with astronauts set to arrive on a partially built base.

NASA unveiled the X-70 Fractal, a crewed experimental aircraft, at the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 4 Nov. The aircraft has a takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds, is designed to cruise at Mach 0.75 and can reach 45,000 feet. Its operational range exceeds about 1,726 miles, and it can carry up to 2,000 pounds of experimental payloads internally and externally. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the first flight could take place within two years. Separately, NASA reported that an Alta-X drone carrying the SPLICE lidar payload performed simulated lunar landing maneuvers at Rogers Dry Lake, California, on 27 Aug.

Reid Wiseman, a former NASA astronaut, will become associate vice president and deputy director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 30 Nov, JPL said. JPL is managed by Caltech. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Wiseman's experience and leadership would help advance JPL's work. Separately, the four-person Artemis II crew has left active astronaut duty. Christina Koch was named NASA acting deputy chief engineer, effective 1 Nov. Artemis II launched on 1 Apr and flew a 10-day lunar flyby, the farthest crewed distance from Earth on record.