NASA announced on Sept. 1, 2026, that it had awarded Blue Origin a firm-fixed-price contract to develop the agency's Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation system intended to provide high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions. The contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million and calls for delivering a high-performance telecommunications orbiter to NASA no later than Dec. 31, 2028.

Under the award, Blue Origin is to design, develop, integrate, launch and operate the network. The architecture calls for a spacecraft orbiting Mars that would transmit science data, imagery, navigation information and critical mission communications for spacecraft on and around the planet. NASA said the network, managed by its Space Communications and Navigation program, is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030.

The selection followed a request for proposals issued in May. NASA described the award as part of a strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, and as an effort to draw on private-sector capabilities while the agency focuses on exploration and scientific discovery.