NASA awards nearly $600 million in lunar lander missions

Key Points:

• NASA has awarded nearly $600 million to three companies—Astrobotic Technology, Firefly Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines—to conduct four robotic lunar lander missions scheduled for late 2028, advancing its lunar base goals.
• Each lander will carry identical scientific payloads to study lunar landing plume effects, radiation environment, and enable lunar laser ranging, helping build a global network of environmental data on the moon.
• NASA is considering sending PROMISE, a nuclear-powered rover originally developed for Mars missions, to the moon to explore permanently shadowed regions without the constraints of solar power.
• Despite Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explosion in May, NASA plans to continue using it to launch the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, with a willingness to wait until mid-2027 before exploring alternative launch options.
• The awards mark continued progress for the selected companies, with Astrobotic completing its Griffin-1 mission and Intuitive Machines focusing on rapid production of lunar landers to support sustained lunar infrastructure development.