Italy to Spend Over $5 Billion to Send Two Astronauts to the Moon

According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Italy has committed more than $5 billion to the development of a lunar habitat for the agency’s Moon Base programme. In return, the country has secured spots for two Italian astronauts on future missions to the surface of the Moon.

Speaking during the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on 15 September, Isaacman cited Italy’s contribution to NASA’s lunar exploration programme as an example of what he described as a “good deal” with an international partner. The centrepiece of that contribution is the Multi-Purpose Habitat (MPH), a pressurised lunar habitat module being developed by Thales Alenia Space under an Italian Space Agency (ASI) contract for future long-duration missions to the Moon.