Commercial Lunar Payload Services is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for l
Models of the first three commercial landers selected for the program. Left to right: Peregrine by Astrobotic Technology, Nova-C by Intuitive Machines, and Z-01 by OrbitBeyond.
Nova-C lander model, on display in May 2019 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
The lunar south pole region is of special interest because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas inside craters, near constant solar power at the crater rims, and abundant metals and oxygen in the regolith.
Landing sites of the CLPS missions
Blue Ghost Mission 1
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Blue Ghost Mission 1 was a robotic Moon landing mission conducted by Firefly Aerospace. The spacecraft soft-landed on the lunar surface on March 2, 2025, making Firefly the first commercial company to
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
…for a mission to the far side of the Moon using the second Blue Ghost lander, expected to launch in 2026. On March 2, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander touched down on the moon around 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The spacecraft, built by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, carried ten instruments for NASA as part of CLPS. Many…
Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center shortly before the launch of Blue Ghost Mission 1 and Hakuto-R Mission 2
Location of Mare Crisium on the Moon, highlighted in red
Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) payload
Trifid and Lagoon nebulae