Blue Origin wins $700M NASA Mars Telecommunications Network contract
Blue Origin · NASA · Rocket Lab
NASA picked Blue Origin over Rocket Lab to build and operate a $700 million Mars telecom orbiter due by December 2028.
what happened
NASA selected Blue Origin as the provider for its Mars Telecommunications Network under a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million, per NASA's own release. Blue Origin must deliver a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter to NASA no later than December 31, 2028, and will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network, which is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030 and support current and future Mars missions through NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program. The selection followed a competitive process in which Blue Origin and Rocket Lab were the two publicly disclosed contenders, per SpaceNews's Jeff Foust.
why it matters
The award hands Blue Origin a nine-figure NASA contract and a foothold in deep-space communications infrastructure beyond its lunar lander and launch businesses, while Rocket Lab, which had built its own Mars orbiter pitch around the same NASA requirement, loses out on a program that would have diversified its business past Electron/Neutron launch and satellite manufacturing.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Blue Origin, NASA, Rocket Lab
- Category
- procurement
- Impact
- major
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-01
- Published
- 2026-09-01 21:35 UTC