As NASA focuses on returning humans to the Moon with Artemis, commercial providers are gearing up to deliver cargo to the lunar surface for NASA and other customers. Over a dozen uncrewed lunar missions are scheduled to be launched in the coming years, and more concepts are being developed globally.
Two commercial lunar landers are currently on their way to the Moon, and at least two more are set to follow this year under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Meanwhile, space agencies and companies worldwide are preparing for the next steps in their lunar exploration programs.
On Jan. 15 at 06:11 UTC, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida, carrying two Moon-bound spacecraft into orbit. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander was the first lunar lander to separate from Falcon 9’s upper stage. This mission, codenamed Ghost Riders in the Sky, is the company’s first attempt at landing on the Moon and carries 10 science and technology instruments provided by NASA under the CLPS program.
Shortly after reaching orbit, Firefly reported that Blue Ghost’s payloads were in good condition, and six had started reporting back data. After spending 25 days in Earth orbit, Blue Ghost will light its engines to inject itself into a lunar transit trajectory. If all goes well, Blue Ghost is set to touch down on the Moon’s surface in the Mare Crisium region on March 2 and operate its payloads for a full lunar day, or approximately 14 Earth days.
“We take a little bit of a different approach with the trajectory than might be expected historically,” explained Kevin Scholtes, systems architect at Firefly Aerospace, in an interview with NSF. “So instead of going directly to the moon, we go on a little bit of an extra roundabout around the Earth a few times and this gives us advantages on our propulsion management. This gives us the opportunity to provide extra observational periods for payloads that have transit observations that they want to do. But it also allows us to decouple launch from landing so we can maintain a fixed landing time and maximize the daylight period.”
The second spacecraft Falcon 9 deployed on Jan. 15 was the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lander from the Japanese company ispace. This lander, named Resilience, will perform the company’s second attempt at softly landing on the lunar surface after the first HAKUTO-R mission crashed into the Moon in 2023. Resilience will deliver six payloads to the lunar surface: a small rover, three experiments, a commemorative plaque, and an art piece.
Falcon 9 deployed the HAKUTO-R lander in a higher orbit than Blue Ghost. Its journey to the Moon will involve a lunar flyby one month after launch, which will put Resilience on a low-energy lunar transfer orbit. The cost of this low-energy trajectory is a longer transfer time, as the lander is expected to touch down in the Mare Frigoris region no sooner than 4.5 months after its launch.
Upcoming CLPS missions
Like Blue Ghost, many upcoming lunar missions are part of NASA’s CLPS program. The agency established the program in 2018 to stimulate the development of commercial lunar landing capabilities. The program allows NASA to rapidly deploy science and exploration payloads in support of the Artemis program.
Three CLPS missions have launched thus far, including Blue Ghost. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander failed to reach the Moon in early 2024. The attempt was followed by Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which did softly land on the Moon but not in the correct orientation after a landing leg failed. Regardless, the lander operated on the lunar surface for a short period.
The next mission to launch under the CLPS program is Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, which is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Feb. 27. This time, the Nova-C lander will carry a suite of NASA-provided and commercial payloads. The lander is set to touch down on the Mons Mouton mountain near the lunar South Pole.
Intuitive Machines is contracted to land two more missions with CLPS payloads on the lunar surface. IM-3 is expected to carry four NASA payloads to Reiner Gamma in early 2026, and IM-4 will deliver six NASA payloads to the lunar South Pole no earlier than 2027.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lander. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)
Following Peregrine’s failure, Astrobotic is also scheduled to reattempt landing on our celestial companion this year. The company’s Griffin lander is set to launch atop a Falcon Heavy no earlier than November and land in the Nobile Region at the lunar South Pole. Griffin is much larger than its predecessor and was originally supposed to carry NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). The agency canceled the project last year as a cost-cutting effort and will now provide an inert mass in VIPER’s place.
Astrobotic has purchased an additional Falcon Heavy mission in 2026. With this third lunar mission, the company wants to land at the Moon’s south pole once more and deliver commercial payloads to the lunar surface.
The last CLPS mission that may fly in 2025 is Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Pathfinder. The company is developing two Blue Moon variants, the Mark 1 version for cargo delivery as well as a larger Mark 2 lander for human missions starting with Artemis 5. A pathfinder for Mark 1 might launch on the company’s next New Glenn flight, delivering NASA’s Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) to the lunar South Pole under the CLPS program.
Following the first Blue Ghost mission, Firefly and NASA have signed contracts for two more CLPS missions. These missions will Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicle and improved versions of the Blue Ghost lander.
“We lean very hard on the historical lessons learned that we’ve seen throughout time, throughout recent missions, and of course, we’re going to learn on our own mission as well. […] Every day we get a little bit better at understanding the scope of the problem. And we’re already folding those lessons in before we’ve even launched our first mission,” said Scholtes shortly before the first mission launched.
Artist’s impression of Blue Ghost Mission 2 on the lunar surface. (Credit: Firefly Aerospace)
The second Blue Ghost mission, planned for 2026, will deliver the Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Experiment at Night (LuSEE-Night) radio telescope to the far side of the Moon. The mission will also carry a data relay satellite into lunar orbit for the European Space Agency (ESA).
Blue Ghost’s third mission is expected to lift off in 2028. On this flight, Firefly will deliver a rover to the lunar surface to explore the geological and volcanic features of the Gruithuisen Domes.
The final CLPS mission on the current manifest is a collaboration between Draper and the ispace’s U.S. division. For this, the company is developing its APEX 1.0 lander, the successor to the Series 1 lander that flies on the current HAKUTO-R mission. The APEX 1.0 lander is scheduled to launch in 2026 and deliver NASA science instruments to the Schrödinger Basin.
While no more CLPS missions are planned at this time, over a dozen companies are allowed to bid on future CLPS task orders. These include SpaceX with its Starship system, Lockheed Martin Space with its McCandless Lunar Lander concept, and Orbit Beyond, which wants to fly its lander as soon as 2026. Lunar missions from any of these partners could be announced as demand for lunar exploration increases.
“I absolutely foresee that we will see a continued need for scientific expeditions to every sort of location on the Moon,” said Scholtes.
Chang’e-6 on the lunar surface. (Credit: CNSA)
Future international lunar missions
Beyond NASA’s CLPS program, space agencies and companies worldwide are planning more lunar missions.
Following last year’s highly successful Chang’e 6 mission, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) expects to launch its Chang’e 7 mission no earlier than 2026. The mission is set to carry a suite of science instruments to lunar orbit and the Moon’s South Pole. The lander will deploy a rover and a hopping vehicle.
Two years later, Chang’e 8 is set to launch nearby and join Chang’e 7 to form a prototype for a lunar research station. This project might see the country collaborate with Russia, which is preparing for its Luna 26 through 29 missions. At this time, these missions are uncertain, as the Russian space program is straining under limited funding due to the war in Ukraine.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to land its Chandrayaan-4 sample return mission no earlier than 2027. Earlier this month, ISRO passed a pivotal milestone with the successful docking of the Space Docking eXperiment (SpaDeX) mission. Chandrayaan-4’s architecture requires multiple docking attempts to combine vehicle components launched on different rockets.
Following Chandrayaan-4, ISRO is set to join forces with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX). This mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than 2028 on a Japanese H3 launch vehicle. ISRO will provide a lander that carries a Japanese rover and payloads provided by multiple partners, including NASA and ESA.
Artist’s impression of LUPEX on the lunar surface. (Credit: JAXA)
ESA is working on its own lunar lander concept called Argonaut, which is still in its very early stages. The first Argonaut mission is expected no earlier than 2031.
The Israeli company SpaceIL is developing the successor to the Beresheet-1 lander, which unintentionally crashed into the Moon in 2019. The hardware for Beresheet-2 is expected to be completed later this year. Finally, the Singapore-based Qosmosys is developing its ZeusX lander. In 2023, the company contracted Airbus Space to design the lander, but no launch date has been announced.
As interest in spaceflight and the Moon increases, companies and space agencies worldwide are working on more concepts for lunar missions.
(Lead Image: Blue Ghost ahead of its launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Intuitive Machines)
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