Nasa selects Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin for first of three uncrewed lunar missions

Three lunar landings are planned for this year in preparation for the construction of a $20bn moon base

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

Nasa announced on Tuesday ambitious plans for three uncrewed lunar missions this year to kickstart construction of a $20bn moon base, and said it had chosen the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to conduct the first.

The revelation by Nasa’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, at a press conference in Washington DC marked the first detailed public explanation of how and when the moon base will be built.