NASA selected 41 proposals from 37 U.S. companies on July 15, 2026 to develop technologies for sustained Moon operations and crewed Mars missions. The agency provides roughly $30 million in resources through collaboration agreements, not direct funding.
NASA announced on July 15, 2026 that it selected 41 technology proposals from 37 American companies to help build the capabilities needed for a sustained human presence on the Moon and, eventually, crewed missions to Mars. The selections came through the agency's 2025 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity, or ACO, a program designed to pull commercial innovation into NASA's exploration pipeline.
This is not a traditional contract. Under the ACO model, NASA does not hand over money. Instead, companies gain access to the agency's facilities, hardware, software, and engineers. In exchange, they agree to develop technologies that could serve both commercial customers and future government space missions. NASA estimates it is bringing roughly $30 million in internal resources to the table; participating companies are putting in approximately $32 million of their own investment.
The 41 selected projects span three broad areas: space transportation, planetary surface operations, and infrastructure for long-term work on the Moon. Think power generation for lunar outposts, systems to protect spacecraft and equipment from the abrasive dust that coats the lunar surface, and logistics for getting cargo and crew safely to the ground from orbit.
Among the selected companies are Blue Origin, based near Kent, Washington, which will assess technologies for slowing spacecraft during descent from orbit to planetary surfaces. Aerojet Rocketdyne's Redmond facility will work on affordability improvements for Hall current thrusters, a type of electric propulsion used for space transportation. STOKE Space Technologies, also in Kent, will advance entry, descent, and landing capabilities for its Nova Stage 2 rocket. Starcloud, based in Redmond, will conduct a flight demonstration of high-performance computing for in-orbit autonomy.
Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology Division at NASA Headquarters, described the logic behind the program directly: "We are empowering American industry to become active partners in NASA's missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. By tapping into commercial industry, NASA can rapidly develop key capabilities to support its most ambitious missions while fostering the nation's robust space economy."
The ACO selection did not happen in isolation. A day earlier, on July 14, NASA announced it was awarding nearly $600 million for four commercial Moon landings planned for late 2028. Each of those missions will carry the same three science instruments, targeting improvements in lunar navigation, research into dust kicked up during landings, and mapping of the Moon's radiation environment.
The same week, NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars completed the equivalent of a full marathon, having driven 26.2 miles across the Martian surface over five years and four months. The rover continues operating well past its original mission scope and is still collecting samples that may eventually return to Earth.
Earlier in 2026, NASA launched Artemis II in April, the first crewed mission to fly around the Moon in more than 50 years. That mission marked a concrete step toward the Artemis IV Moon landing now targeted for 2027.
Since the ACO program began in 2015, NASA has supported more than 110 projects through these collaboration agreements. The idea is that a company working inside NASA's facilities, alongside its engineers, can compress development timelines that would otherwise take years. For the agency, it gets access to commercial innovation without carrying the full cost of research and development internally.
NASA expects some of these 41 projects to open new markets or reduce the cost of services that today are expensive and technically risky, from power delivery on the lunar surface to cargo logistics for future outposts. The agency confirmed it is inviting additional organizations to explore similar collaboration opportunities as it pushes toward exploration beyond Earth orbit.
The scale and tempo of activity in 2026 suggests that the commercial space economy is no longer just a background story in NASA's plans. It has become the plan. Whether the selected companies deliver on their specific technical goals over the next 12 to 24 months will determine how much of that promise becomes hardware that actually reaches the Moon.
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