Moon project team at GM a mystery
NASA timeline impacted by 'incredibly violent event'
General Motors revealed a week ago that its GM Defense unit would produce the battery electric propulsion technology for a lunar terrain vehicle as part of NASA’s goal to set up a base on the moon and establish a continuous human presence there.
GM has not disclosed who will lead their project.
“We aren’t providing names at this point. The team is being organized now,” GM spokesman Stuart Fowle told Shifting Gears. “We are working to finalize scope and team size for batteries now that the contract has been awarded. So it’s too early to share specifics about team size and reporting structure.”
Kurt Kelty is the battery czar at GM as vice president of battery and sustainability. The company hired him in February 2024 after he spent 11 years at Tesla as senior director of battery tech and six years at Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. battery materials company.
Kelty is scheduled for a GM tech event this month in San Francisco, so analysts and press will be listening closely to what he discusses and how. He oversees a massive battery operation at the automaker, which refers to him as a “globally recognized battery expert.”
The space project is “validation of technological capabilities that GM has developed and that have accelerated under Kurt Kelty,” GM spokesman Jim Cain told Shifting Gears.
It’s intended to support operations at the Moon’s South Pole, which has rugged terrain and extreme temperatures.
“From full-size EVs here on Earth to concepts for lunar rovers, our teams continue to push the limits of what lithium-ion battery technology can do,” Kelty wrote on his LinkedIn nine months ago.
"I’ve been in this industry for over 30 years, starting when lithium-ion was first commercialized. Back then, we were developing batteries for camcorders and laptops, trying to eke out a few extra minutes of runtime,” Kelty said in an August 2025 article he posted from the GM website. “Today, we’re powering full-size electric trucks that can drive 495 miles on a single charge. It’s incredible to see how far the technology has come, and GM continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible—even on the lunar surface.”
For now, it’s wait and see for moon rover news from GM.
Industry observers say they hope Kelty isn’t leaving the company anytime soon. (Three top tech execs have left GM within the past eight months.)
A source inside GM with personal knowledge of the executive team told Shifting Gears that no one should be concerned that Kelty is a flight risk. “He’s really committed to the work we’re doing.”
What’s at stake with moon project
GM is a subcontractor to Lunar Outpost, a Golden, Colorado-based company founded in 2017 that won the $224 million federal contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NASA has said its Artemis missions are a top priority. Astronauts were planning to drive rovers on the moon by 2028 during Artemis missions.
“NASA is building a Moon Base near the lunar South Pole which will establish the first sustained presence on the Moon,” NASA spokesperson Victoria Ugalde told Shifting Gears. “It will be home base for Artemis astronauts during Artemis missions and will serve as a hub for science, technology demonstrations, and exploration. The Moon Base will be developed through a phased, iterative approach that builds capability over time. By starting with near-term technology demonstrations, robotic missions, and early experiments, NASA and its partners can test systems, learn quickly, and steadily mature the capabilities required for continuous human presence on the Moon.”
Lunar Outpost has submitted every proposal that included GM technology, Cain said. “Pegasus will include GM battery tech, and may include other technologies. Our scope will be finalized over the course of several weeks.”
Pegasus can operate autonomously, via teleoperation or with human crews aboard, according to the Lunar Outpost webpage.
Cain told Shifting Gears in January 2026 that the company had been working on its proposal for a couple years. GM declined to discuss financial details of the project. Lunar Outpost didn’t respond to a request from Shifting Gears for information.
Initially, GM Defense submitted a proposal through Lunar Outpost for a rover that would have included 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.
That was the Eagle version of the rover, which Shifting Gears previewed in January, and is expected to come later, Cain said.
Explosion upends timeline
While NASA awarded its contracts on Tuesday, May 26, everything came to a screeching halt on Thursday, May 28.
The rocket, built by Blue Origin Enterprises (owned by Jeff Bezos) exploded on its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, while conducting a hot-fire test — creating a classic mushroom cloud.
On Monday, June 1, the NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNBC that 2028 now is “within the realm” of possible launchpad repair. But discussion about the impact on the moon project indicates timelines are uncertain as investigation continues.
Astrophysicist Scott Manley, host of a science podcast with 1.86 million subscribers, called the incident an “incredibly violent event” in his May 29 podcast.
This “knocks a big hole in Artemis plans” for a planned lunar landing in 2028, he said.
NASA press relations referred Shifting Gears to Isaacman posts on X. “We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets. We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.”
Boeing and GM did the Apollo-era Lunar Roving Vehicle used in 1971-72.
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Thanks for this. A good book on the original lunar rover and GM's role in its development and production is Earl Swift's _Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings_.
Great stuff! Exciting.