Nasa unveils next steps to build permanent Moon base

USA: Nasa has released details of robotic landers, hopping drones and vehicles it aims to send to the Moon as part of US plans to build a lunar base.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin is one of several companies picked to build the machines.

The US wants to land Americans back on the Moon before President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029.

But Nasa is competing with China to return humans to the lunar surface, meaning the space agency is under pressure to appear to be winning the new space race.

ALSO READ: Israeli strike in Gaza City kills new head of Hamas’s military wing

China is forging ahead with its own plans to land humans on the Moon by 2030.

On Monday it launched its Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, sending a crew of astronauts to the country’s Tiangong space station.

In March, Nasa announced a $20 billion programme to construct a permanent base powered by nuclear and solar energy at the Moon’s south pole by 2032.

Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman said on Tuesday that the announcements mean the US will “never give up the Moon again”.