Commercial missions to the Moon reached new heights in March 2025, with Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines each landing spacecraft on the lunar surface under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program – part of the agency’s broader Artemis effort, which aims to return humans to the Moon. Under CLPS, NASA works with multiple American companies, large and small, to deliver science and technology payloads. These companies bid on contracts for everything from payload integration and operations to launch and lunar landing services.
The program’s commercial deliveries are designed to perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities on the Moon’s surface. By purchasing these transportation services rather than developing its own lunar landers, NASA aims to lower costs, spark private investment, and speed up innovation. In practical terms, that means more frequent missions, more flight heritage for emerging space companies, and, ultimately, greater confidence in a sustainable presence at—and around—the Moon.
But NASA’s efforts are not the only game in town: Japan-based ispace, recently announced plans to land its RESILIENCE lander in June 2025 outside the CLPS framework, illustrating how international and independent commercial operators are also converging on the lunar frontier.
NASA’s CLPS Program: Fueling Competition and Innovation
NASA’s CLPS program stands out for its emphasis on buying services rather than building and operating landers itself. By outsourcing these responsibilities, the agency encourages smaller companies to develop their own vehicles and solutions, freeing NASA from the budgetary and administrative burden of an in-house approach. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine likened CLPS to taking many “shots on goal,” where each attempt—whether it lands perfectly or not—adds to the collective knowledge base of lunar exploration. This acceptance of risk fosters a spirit of experimentation and rapid iteration.
At the same time, NASA’s choice to become an early anchor customer ensures guaranteed demand for each mission, boosting the confidence of private investors. The structure requires providers to meet specific performance milestones under set costs and deadlines, pushing them to innovate in areas like propulsion, guidance, navigation, and control systems. Companies such as Astrobotic, Draper Laboratory, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and ispace U.S. have all secured contracts through this approach. In doing so, they not only compete but also learn from one another, refining their designs and business models to capture the growing market for lunar transportation.
Firefly Aerospace: The Blue Ghost Mission
Firefly Aerospace reached a major milestone on March 2 when its Blue Ghost lander touched down in Mare Crisium on the Moon’s near side. “Y’all stuck the landing, we’re on the Moon!” exclaimed Chief Engineer Will Coogan, who was monitoring the mission from Firefly’s control center in Texas. The company ferried 10 NASA-sponsored payloads, including Honeybee Robotics’ PlanetVac, which fired pressurized gas to collect lunar soil—an operation that could inform future methods for extracting in-situ resources.
Blue Ghost’s mission budget of $101.5 million underscores NASA’s cost-effective strategy when procuring these commercial services. The lander is expected to function during one lunar daylight cycle—about 14 Earth days—providing a limited but focused window to conduct experiments on dust mitigation, radiation effects, and real-time sample handling. After this two-week period, the lack of sunlight will cause temperatures to plunge and power supplies to wane, likely ending the lander’s operational life. Firefly’s achievements, however, contribute to a growing flight record that strengthens investor confidence and cements the company’s role as a key player in U.S. commercial lunar exploration.
Intuitive Machines: The Athena Lander
Intuitive Machines landed its Athena spacecraft near the Moon’s south pole just days after Firefly’s touchdown. NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Nicky Fox confirmed “We do know that it is returning data.” Despite a successful descent, CEO Steve Altemus noted, “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the moon yet,” suggesting the lander may not be fully upright. Mission controllers continue to evaluate Athena’s stability and power usage, hoping to deploy a rover and a small rocket-powered drone designed to investigate permanently shadowed craters suspected of harboring water ice.
Much of Athena’s guidance and navigation, including crater recognition software, appears to have worked as planned. “The answer, over and over and over, was, yes,” explained Crain, who believes the lander’s systems successfully identified the craters near Mons Mouton, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Because Athena may not be fully upright, the mission is considered “off-nominal,” prompting the team to reassess which payloads can still operate. One notable experiment is Lunar Outpost’s MAPP rover, which contains a key to a cryptocurrency wallet worth over $250,000—a “cosmic treasure hunt” aimed at enticing future explorers. Whether MAPP can drive off depends on Athena’s final orientation, but Intuitive Machines remains hopeful about salvaging elements of the mission. “Even as a space person,” Crain said, referring to the south pole’s unusual twilight lighting, “it’s this twilight space of shadows and grays. That was interesting…we’ll get it next time.”
Though the lander’s tilt may limit its objectives, it still provides valuable operational experience and critical data. Intuitive Machines has gained flight heritage for its hardware and software systems, proving that rapid design and deployment cycles can be effective, even under the harsh conditions of lunar missions. The partial success also reflects the inherent challenges of landing on the Moon—difficulties that NASA’s CLPS program anticipates as part of its iterative learning process. Even if some mission objectives go unmet, every data point gathered will refine techniques for future landers and help drive the commercial lunar market forward.
ispace: The SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2
Scheduled to land on June 6, 2025, at 4:24 a.m. JST, ispace’s RESILIENCE lander seeks to build on lessons learned from the company’s previous mission. CEO Takeshi Hakamada announced the target date from ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Tokyo, explaining that “It’s been almost seven weeks since the RESILIENCE lander began its second journey to the Moon on January 15,” and that Mission 2 has so far progressed smoothly. If conditions change, ispace has three alternative landing sites and windows, ensuring flexibility for potential challenges. The mission has already completed a lunar flyby and achieved five of its ten mission milestones, confirming that all seven subsystems of the lander remain nominal.
During this “R&D mission,” ispace aims to deploy the TENACIOUS micro rover to conduct regolith extraction demonstrations and mobility tests on the lunar surface. The mission is following a low-energy orbit, taking months to reach its final destination, but it provides extensive data on deep space flight, thermal control, and orbital maneuvers. Hakamada stressed that any insights gained will inform the development of the next missions, leading to “full scale commercialization operations” with Mission 3 and beyond. Mission 3, led by ispace-U.S. and slated for 2026, will shorten lunar transit times to just a few weeks, transitioning the company’s approach from extended testing to direct commercial delivery services.
The Road Ahead for the Cislunar Economy
The Moon’s economic potential hinges on the belief that frequent, affordable access will spur new uses, from mining rare elements to establishing research laboratories. NASA’s CLPS approach mitigates lunar operation risks by guaranteeing early demand, encouraging private investment. If companies like Firefly, Intuitive Machines, and ispace continue to show that repeatable landings and extended surface operations are possible, markets for resource utilization, power generation, and specialized manufacturing could flourish.
This economic promise is not limited to a single nation. ispace’s global presence in Japan, the U.S., and Luxembourg reflects a broader trend: many countries and private firms are eager to participate in lunar exploration and development. The dual benefits of scientific discovery and commercial return could transform the Moon into a proving ground for technologies intended for Mars or beyond. If successful, these missions will validate propulsion methods, robotic systems, and business cases necessary for humanity’s broader push into cislunar space.
Partnerships Between Government and Industry
CLPS has demonstrated that a well-structured public-private partnership can drive down costs and development times for lunar missions. NASA acts as a guaranteed customer, while its commercial partners handle lander production, software integration, and mission operations. This frees the space agency to focus on defining payload requirements and verifying results, without the typical overhead and bureaucracy of a government-run program. Companies, in turn, gain a stable revenue stream that helps persuade investors and accelerates technological progress.
Such collaborations are not limited to one or two missions. According to NASA, CLPS contracts operate under an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity model with a cumulative maximum value of up to $2.6 billion through 2028. As these private firms accumulate flight heritage, they may secure contracts from international space agencies, research institutions, and even corporate clients with commercial or branding interests on the lunar surface. This broader ecosystem could soon include logistics networks, resource extraction services, power generation arrays, and communications satellites orbiting or stationed on the Moon. Each new project adds capabilities that make lunar activity more sustainable, ultimately blending government needs with the commercial sector’s drive for efficiency and profit.
Conclusion
Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and ispace illustrate a pivotal shift in lunar exploration—from large government-led initiatives to agile commercial ventures carrying NASA payloads and independently financed technologies. Their recent and upcoming landings represent critical steps toward regular, reliable transport to the lunar surface. They also show that challenges, whether in attitude control or trajectory maneuvers, offer valuable lessons that refine future hardware and mission strategies.
The next wave of cislunar endeavors will likely see more frequent flights, expanded scientific output, and the emergence of robust commercial services. As NASA’s CLPS continues to fund these projects, more industries will discover opportunities in off-Earth resource extraction, testing, and research. Whether it is Firefly’s proven approach in Mare Crisium, Intuitive Machines’ perseverance at the south pole, or ispace’s scheduled June landing, each mission sets the stage for the Moon’s transformation into an arena for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
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