NASA awards Modulate Space $38 million contract to develop lunar 5G network

NASA announced on September 30, 2026, that it had awarded Modulate Space Corporation an approximately $38 million contract to develop a 5G communications system with built-in Wi-Fi 6 for the lunar surface. The work, for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is intended to test technology that could support future operations at a Moon base.

The firm-fixed-price contract has two work areas, NASA said. One covers development and a laboratory demonstration of a network in a box; the other covers an integrated 5G and Wi-Fi surface network and a flight demonstration on the Moon. Together, they are meant to develop a communications capability that can scale and use agreed standards for future lunar surface operations.

When NASA plans to test the lunar network

The network-in-a-box development and laboratory demonstration period is scheduled to run from October 1, 2026, through January 31, 2028. The lunar flight demonstration period is scheduled for November 30 through December 31, 2028. Those are contract performance periods, not reported results: neither demonstration had taken place when NASA announced the award.

NASA says the demonstrations will advance the hardware, firmware and software needed for an integrated lunar communications system. It expects to learn how the system is arranged and how it performs in operation, while retaining room to adapt the technology for future surface communications. The announcement does not say that a 5G network is already operating on the Moon.

What earlier lunar communications work shows

A NASA-hosted final review of a lunar surface communications study by NASA and Nokia Bell Labs examined network choices for initial surface scenarios. It found that both LTE and 5G NR could meet or exceed the mobile broadband needs considered. The study did not say that 5G was required for every early use: in the Artemis V scenarios it examined, its additional scalability and performance were unnecessary and could increase size, weight and power demands.

The study recommended weighing those trade-offs against NASA’s priorities and proceeding through planned demonstrations and intermediate tests on Earth before a later operational deployment. It also said remote lunar network operations must account for delays, limited data rates and potentially constrained availability on links back to Earth. Its findings concern scenarios studied before this award; they are not test results for Modulate Space’s proposed system.

An earlier attempt shows both the progress and the limits of lunar cellular testing. Nokia reported that a system it developed with Intuitive Machines reached the Moon on the IM-2 mission and sent operational data to Earth. It said the network in a box ran without a service interruption during a 25-minute power window. The companies did not complete a cellular call, according to Nokia, after the Athena lander’s solar-panel orientation caused significant power limitations and a Hopper device module became too cold to connect.

That account is Nokia’s report of its own demonstration. It does not establish how the newly contracted 5G and Wi-Fi 6 system will perform. NASA’s contract instead sets out another development and test sequence, with a lunar flight demonstration planned for late 2028.

How the contract fits NASA’s LunaNet plans

NASA has separately published a LunaNet interoperability specification for communications and navigation around the Moon. It defines agreed standards and interfaces for a cooperative network serving missions in transit to, around and on the Moon. The framework also covers position, navigation and timing services and information such as space weather.

NASA says it develops LunaNet with the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, while seeking input from commercial providers, mission users and other space agencies. That broader standards work gives context to NASA’s call for a scalable, standards-based surface capability in the Modulate Space contract. The award announcement does not specify how the proposed 5G and Wi-Fi 6 equipment will connect to other lunar services.