GM headed to the moon (again)?
Awaiting 'imminent' NASA announcement
General Motors has its fingers crossed.
The automaker in Detroit is waiting to hear any minute now whether its subsidiary, GM Defense, will be selected by NASA as part of a team that builds the next-generation lunar rover — which can be manned or autonomous.
“We’re part of a group of companies that have submitted a proposal,” Jim Cain, GM spokesman, told Shifting Gears on Thursday. “We feel we’ve got a pretty good shot.”
GM Defense is supplying battery-electric propulsion, autonomous vehicle hardware and suspension technology, including some Hummer-derived capability, like the crab walk — a steering feature that enables the GMC vehicle to drive diagonally.
The team, led by Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado, is developing the “Eagle” Lunar Terrain Vehicle to support NASA’s Artemis program. The program is intended to return humans to the moon, establish a sustainable, long-term human presence there for scientific discovery, technology testing, and to prepare for future human missions to Mars, according to the NASA website.
There are two other lunar terrain vehicles competing for the mission and NASA is expected to notify the team that will advance to Phase 2 (functional prototype development) and a runner up — as early as Friday, Jan. 30, Erica Mitchell, GM Defense spokeswoman, told Shifting Gears.
This process has required patience and time.
“It’s actually been work in progress for a couple years. There were initial proposals and then NASA awarded contracts to further develop the best proposals and ours is one of those,” Cain said. “Now they’re actually gearing up for production.”
Boeing and GM did the Apollo-era Lunar Roving Vehicle used in 1971-72, he noted.
Going ‘beyond earth’
Justin Cyrus, CEO of Lunar Outpost, identifies his “world-class” teammates developing a human-rated rover for NASA’s Artemis campaign as:
General Motors
Goodyear of Akron, Ohio
Leidos of Reston, Virginia
MDA Space of Brampton, Ontario, Canada
“Lunar Outpost is unlocking the Moon and Mars by building the essential mobility and infrastructure systems that will enable sustained exploration and commercialization beyond Earth,” the company website says. “Lunar Outpost is laying the groundwork for off-world economies to thrive.”
‘Moon to Mars’
NASA has said it’s working towards the launch of Artemis II, which would be the first crewed exploration of the lunar surface in more than half a century, in 2026.
“With NASA’s Artemis campaign, we are exploring the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars,” NASA said on its website. “We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon.”
The space agency calls this part of a “moon-to-Mars” strategy.
New appointee running NASA
The U.S. Senate confirmed Jared “Rook” Isaacman as the new administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Dec. 17, 2025, and he was sworn-in the following day.
Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, pilot and private astronaut, said in a NASA news release on Dec. 18, “NASA’s mission is as imperative and urgent as ever — to push the boundaries of human exploration, ignite the orbital economy, drive scientific discovery, and innovate for the benefit of all of humanity. I look forward to serving under President Trump’s leadership and restoring a mission-first culture at NASA — focused on achieving ambitious goals, to return American astronauts to the Moon, establish an enduring presence on the lunar surface, and laying the groundwork to deliver on President Trump’s vision of planting the Stars and Stripes on Mars.”
Isaacman co-founded Draken International, which trains U.S. military pilots. The company services and manages one of the world’s largest private fleets of fighter jets, according to his official biography on the NASA site. “Outsourcing this critical role to the private sector has saved taxpayers billions of dollars.”
He also commanded the first all-private civilian orbital spaceflight in 2021 aboard SpaceX Dragon. In 2024, he went on another SpaceX mission and took part in the first commercial spacewalk.
Isaacman, a high school dropout from Bernards Township, New Jersey, went on to earn a GED and obtain a Bachelor of Science degree from the private Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2011.
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I’ve been a fanatical supporter of NASA for as long as I can remember. Now they’re fighting to exist, with Space X achieving most favored status. Musk money changes everything.