NASA’s VIPER lunar rover could be delivered to the moon by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company. The US space agency has awarded the company a task order to design a delivery plan for the rover, with a future delivery option.

The award, worth $190 million, was issued through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which the agency is using to buy delivery services to the moon from private companies. The award does not directly imply a delivery agreement; first, NASA will verify whether Blue Origin is capable of successfully sending the expensive VIPER rover to the moon’s south pole. To be eligible to take on the VIPER delivery, the company must place its Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander—complete with a NASA technology payload—on the lunar surface by the end of 2025.

Blue Origin won this contract to send cargo to the moon in 2023, and designed the Blue Moon MK1 in order to fulfil it. On this mission, it will carry NASA stereo cameras that will conduct surface surveys, in addition to small spheres equipped with laser technology for mission tracking.

“There is an option on the contract to deliver and safely deploy the rover to the Moon’s surface. NASA will make the decision to exercise that option after the execution and review of the base task and of Blue Origin’s first flight of the Blue Moon MK1 lander,” the agency said in a statement.

On the same day as NASA announced the award, Blue Origin wrote on X: “Our second Blue Moon MK1 lander is already in production and well-suited to support the VIPER rover. Building on the learnings from our first MK1 lander, this mission is important for future lunar permanence and will teach us about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon.”

VIPER—which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover—ha...