Blue Origin wins $700 million contract to build NASA's next Mars orbiter

Blue Origin will build NASA's next Mars orbiter.

The agency announced on Tuesday (Sept.

1) that it has selected Jeff Bezos ' spaceflight company to develop the $700 million Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN), which is expected to be up and running at the Red Planet by 2030.

"The award marks a milestone in NASA's strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the moon , establishing the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades," NASA officials said in a statement on Tuesday .

As its name suggests, the MTN — previously known as the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter — will primarily serve to aid NASA science missions rather than gather data of its own.

The MTN is "a next-generation communications system that will enable reliable, high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions," NASA officials said in the statement.

The need for such a data-relay craft is expected to become acute in the coming years as NASA's fleet of current Mars orbiters ages and the agency works to prepare the Red Planet ground for crewed missions in the late 2030s or early 2040s.

At the moment, just two NASA orbiters relay data and commands between the agency's Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers and their handlers on Earth — Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , which launched in 2001 and 2005, respectively.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft help out as well.

All four of these orbiters are gathering science data of their own, however.

The MTN will not have a split focus; it will be a dedicated communications craft.

Our Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, built upon the Blue Ring platform, will strengthen the communications backbone at the Red Planet while creating new pathways for science.

Capable of delivering multiple payloads to the surface and orbits of Mars, it drives discovery today and… pic.twitter.com/nCN8zMAWCk March 5, 2026 NASA got $700 million for a Mars telecom orbiter in July 2025, when Congress passed a budget reconciliation bill.

The agency laid out requirements for the spacecraft in February of this year, then issued a request for proposals in May .