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NASA has selected 37 American companies under its 2025 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO) program to accelerate the development of technologies needed to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon.
Instead of providing traditional cash grants, NASA is supporting the companies through an “in-kind” partnership model, offering access to its world-class testing facilities, specialized software and engineering expertise in exchange for matching investments from the private sector.
Under the initiative, NASA will contribute approximately $30 million in technical resources and testing capabilities, while the selected companies will invest a combined $32 million of their own funding to advance their projects.
The agency said the collaborative approach is designed to bridge the gap between early-stage commercial concepts and flight-ready space technologies, enabling promising innovations to mature more quickly while reducing development costs.
The technologies developed through the program are expected to support NASA’s Artemis campaign, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon and establish a long-term human presence on the lunar surface.
NASA plans to use the new technologies in upcoming Artemis missions, including its first planned crewed lunar landing targeted for early 2028. The agency said the innovations will focus on creating reliable systems capable of operating in the Moon’s harsh environment, where extreme temperatures, radiation and abrasive lunar dust pose significant challenges to astronauts and equipment.
By partnering with private industry, NASA hopes to accelerate innovation while strengthening the commercial space sector and laying the foundation for future lunar exploration and eventual missions to Mars.
