Last year kicked off with the launch of Astrobotics\u2019 Peregrine lander, marking the first of several missions led by companies working under multimillion-dollar contracts as part of NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine ultimately <\/a> after suffering a propellant leak post-launch, but only a few weeks later, Intuitive Machines launched and <\/a> on the moon \u2014 a first for a private spacecraft. (Odysseus <\/a>, but its payloads were still able to collect and transmit some data).<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Now, fast-forward to this year, and NASA has half a dozen CLPS missions on its schedule. The first of these, Firefly Aerospace\u2019s Blue Ghost Mission 1, launched on January 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. That same rocket also carried a lunar lander made by the Japanese company ispace, which is making <\/a> endeavor, Hakuto-R.<\/p>\n Firefly\u2019s lander, Blue Ghost, is expected to arrive at the moon first, with a target landing date of March 2 in an area called Mare Crisium. The 6.6-foot-tall solar-powered spacecraft is carrying 10 science payloads for NASA and other partners. That includes a new dust shield system to demonstrate how future missions might prevent particulates from accumulating on spacecraft, instruments for testing sample collection and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation and a radiation tolerant computer. \u201cThe objectives of the mission are to investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, plume-surface interactions, [and] crustal electric and magnetic fields,\u201d according to NASA. \u201cIt will also take X-ray images of the Earth’s magnetosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n Resilience, the ispace lander, is taking a different, low-energy <\/a> and won\u2019t reach its site, Mare Frigoris, until late May or June. That craft has a micro rover called Tenacious on board that is designed to explore, collect surface material and relay data. In addition to a camera and shovel, Tenacious has a tiny model house mounted on it \u2014 specifically the \u201c<\/a>,\u201d by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. The lander is carrying water electrolyzer equipment, a deep space radiation probe and a food production experiment module. (And how could we forget, it also contains a commemorative alloy plate from Bandai Namco Research Institute made in the style of the Gundam franchise\u2019s \u201cCharter of the Universal Century\u201d).<\/p>\n Intuitive Machines, the company that pulled off the first-ever commercial moon landing with its Odysseus craft last year, is slated to launch its second CLPS mission in the next month or so, around the end of February. The IM-2 Nova-C lander dubbed Athena is headed to the lunar south pole with a meter-long drill and a mass spectrometer for NASA\u2019s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1). Its goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of drilling for samples and analyzing those samples on-site for things like water. <\/a> will also serve as a rideshare for NASA\u2019s Lunar Trailblazer, a small orbiter that will \u201cstudy the form, abundance and distribution of lunar water and its relation to geology.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the PRIME-1 instruments, Athena will transport a laser retroreflector array, an Intuitive Machines Micro-Nova Hopper \u2014 described as \u201ca propulsive drone that deploys off of a Nova-C lander and hops across the lunar surface\u201d \u2014 and a Lunar Surface Communication System \u201cnetwork in a box\u201d made by Nokia. The two companies plan to set up the moon\u2019s first cellular network, which is \u201cengineered to handle surface connectivity between the lander and vehicles, carrying high-definition video streaming, command-and-control communications and telemetry data.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a chance Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander will take its first trip to the moon as soon as this spring or summer. John Couluris, a senior VP at Blue Origin, said in an interview with <\/a> last March that \u201cwe\u2019re expecting to land on the moon between 12 and 16 months from today.\u201d At the time, the company hadn\u2019t yet launched its New Glenn rocket \u2014 which would be the vehicle for this mission \u2014 even once, so that claim didn\u2019t hold much weight. But after many, many delays, <\/a>in mid-January.<\/p>\n NASA revealed, in an FCC filing spotted by <\/em><\/a> back in August, that it had selected Blue Origin\u2019s lander to bring a camera system, the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS), to the moon\u2019s south pole this year under the CLPS program. In the filing, NASA notes that this needs to be done before 2025 is over, as the data collected by the instrument at landing will help inform plans for the first crewed Artemis moon landing. SCALPSS payloads have flown on other CLPS missions, but the thrust level of Blue Origin\u2019s Mark 1 lander is closer to the scale of the Human Landing System <\/a> will use for astronauts.<\/p>\n Blue Origin said in another <\/a> the same month that its demonstration lunar mission, Pathfinder, could launch as early as March 2025, SpaceNews<\/em> reported. Don\u2019t be surprised if it actually happens much later.<\/p>\n The next CLPS mission after that isn\u2019t expected to take off until the fall, when Astrobotic will get another shot at landing on the moon. This time, it\u2019ll be sending its larger Griffin lander to a region near the south pole. Griffin Mission 1 was initially supposed to carry NASA\u2019s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), but <\/a> of that project late last year due to delays and rising costs. Astrobotic\u2019s lander won\u2019t show up to the moon empty-handed, though. It\u2019ll have a tiny solar-powered CubeRover in tow, as well as a laser retroreflector array to pinpoint the lander\u2019s location.<\/p>\n We may see a third Intuitive Machines mission before the end of this year. The company and NASA are eyeing late 2025 or early 2026 for the launch of IM-3, which will deliver a suite of instruments focused on studying the magnetic and plasma properties of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl, an area with its own \u201cmini-magnetosphere.\u201d A rover called the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) will also be on board, plus a trio of small rovers from the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project that will demonstrate mostly autonomous robots working together. The European Space Agency\u2019s MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector will fly with IM-3 too, along with and the Lunar Space Environment Monitor, from South Korea\u2019s Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).<\/p>\n While this year is certain to bring a lot of activity on and around the moon, there\u2019s one thing we won\u2019t see there just yet \u2014 humans. NASA has adjusted the timeline of the Artemis missions a few times since the program\u2019s announcement, and <\/a> in December that it\u2019s pushing the first crewed flight, Artemis II, to April 2026. The agency previously said it was shooting for September 2025. Artemis III, the mission in which two astronauts will go to the lunar surface, now isn\u2019t expected to launch until mid-2027.<\/p>\n
![<\/a> and won\u2019t reach its site, Mare Frigoris, until late May or June. That craft has a micro rover called Tenacious on board that is designed to explore, collect surface material and relay data. In addition to a camera and shovel, Tenacious has a tiny model house mounted on it \u2014 specifically the \u201c](\"https:\/\/ispace-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ispace-m2-ms-us-Low-fix_241217.jpg\"){kind=link}