Nasa buys two cars for its astronauts to drive on the moon

Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman, with acting Associate Administrator Lori Glaze and Moon Base Program Executive Carlos Garcia-Galan, holds a news conference on updated plans for the agency’s Moon Base initiative for a long-term lunar presence, at Nasa headquarters in Washington, DC, the United States, on Tuesday. (Photo: Reuters)

NEW YORK — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) awarded two companies contracts on Tuesday to develop 21st-century versions of the moon buggies astronauts drove in the Apollo missions of the early 1970s.

Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado, and Venturi Astrolab of Hawthorne, California, will each receive about US$220 million to build the vehicles.