NASA lays out its moon base plans with Texas ties to make it happen

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- NASA laid out its moon base plans, and the operation has Texas ties beyond the Johnson Space Center.

Only weeks have passed since NASA sent humans further in space than ever before. While the agency achieved something new, on Tuesday afternoon, NASA said it's only the beginning.

The agency said a moon base is coming. A place where astronauts will explore, perform experiments, and provide data to get to Mars.

Although NASA has sent humans before, NASA's moon base program manager, Carlos Garcia-Galan, said this moon base mission is different.

"Eventually, when we matched the assets, habitat modules with the logistics and all the things to move the logistics around," Garcia-Galan explained. "Then we'll be able to say, we're permanently here, and we're not giving it up."

The plan, NASA said, is to build a moon base in three phases over 75 launches over the next six years. The first steps, officials said, will be by the end of the year when they start to send supplies to the moon, ahead of astronaut lunar missions scheduled for 2028.

Rice University physics and astronomy professor Patricia Reiff said it's ambitious but doable. "I think this was a very sensible way to proceed," Reiff said.

NASA isn't doing it alone. The agency said it's spending hundreds of millions of dollars with private companies to build the base.

On Tuesday, it announced that Firefly Aerospace, based in Austin, will deliver drones to the moon. Axiom Space, based in Houston, said it'll work with the company selected to build the new lunar rovers.

"I think it's fantastic news because even the ones not based in Houston will be having people here in Houston to work closely with the Johnson Space Center," Reiff explained.

A moon base, NASA said, is ready to start just weeks after completing Artemis, not just for its own exploration, but what could one day benefit us on Earth.

"We go for the technology we will pioneer to get there," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said. "The science and all that we will learn that'll make life better here on earth. To advance humankind on this great adventure."

While NASA plans to send supplies to the moon starting later this year, astronauts won't be with it. NASA said it plans to launch astronauts into space next year to test its lunar landers.

Then, in two years, it says it plans to start sending humans back to the moon.