However, some NASA leaders see the language of the Cruise Act as spelling out only a communications orbiter and believe it would be difficult, if not impossible, to run a procurement competition between now and September 30 for anything beyond a direct communications orbiter.
In a statement provided to Ars by a NASA spokesperson, the agency said that is what it intends to do.
A spokesperson said, “NASA will purchase a high-performance Mars Telecommunications Orbiter that will provide robust, continuous communications for Mars missions.” “NASA looks forward to collaborating with our commercial partners to advance deep space communications and navigation capabilities, Mars infrastructure, and strengthen U.S. leadership in the commercial space sector.”
Big decisions are coming up
Still, sources said Isaacman has not yet decided whether the orbiter should include scientific instruments. NASA could also use other funding in its fiscal year 2026 budget, including $110 million for an unspecified “Mars future mission,” as well as a large portion of funding that could potentially be used to support the Mars Commercial Payload Delivery Program.
So, the range of options facing NASA includes asking for a single telecom orbiter from a company in industry, asking for a telecom orbiter with the ability to connect a few instruments, or creating competition by asking for multiple orbiters and capabilities by tapping the $700 million in the Cruise bill and then enhancing it with other Mars funding.
A sign that the process within NASA has gone awry came a week ago, when the space agency briefly posted a notice on a government website saying “full and open competition, other than justification for expansion.” It added that the agency “will conduct the competition only among vendors meeting the statutory qualifications.” The notice also lists the companies eligible to bid based on the cruise language: Blue Origin, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Quantum Space and Whittinghill Aerospace.
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