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NASA's plans to put astronauts on the moon may look uncertain at the moment, but private companies are moving ahead with uncrewed efforts that could represent a new era in lunar exploration.
Three companies launched moon-bound spacecraft over the past several weeks, with the first one landing Sunday, when Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander touched down shortly after 3:30 a.m. Eastern time. A lander from Japanese company ispace, which flew in January on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as Blue Ghost, is expected to touchdown in early May.
The most recently launched flight started Wednesday, when SpaceX launched with an Intuitive Machines lunar lander expected to arrive at its destination Thursday, when it will descend to Mons Mouton, a large plateau near the Moon's south pole. Intuitive Machines reached the moon in February 2024, but the spacecraft toppled over upon landing.
The Firefly and Intuitive Machines missions get funding from NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Program, which has a maximum contract value of $2.6 billion among numerous companies. Ispace, a publicly traded company, has a contract with the Luxembourg Space Agency.
The flurry of commercial activity comes as NASA is likely to face significant changes to its flagship Artemis program, a campaign born during the first Trump administration to return astronauts to the lunar surface. But Trump has said he favors going to Mars, a destination that has long been preferred by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump.
Key congressional leaders, however, have called for continued focus on the moon, saying the United States is in a space race with China, which intends to send people there by 2030 and build a research station on the lunar south pole.
"One of my greatest concerns is that NASA astronauts will arrive at the moon only to be greeted by a sign that says no trespassers, in Mandarin," Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), said in a hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Whether the destination is the moon, Mars or both, the Artemis program is likely to face significant changes. One target could be NASA's oft-criticized Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, whose development cost almost $23.8 billion from 2011 through its first launch in 2022, according to the Planetary Society. It costs about $2 billion to launch, and has flown once.
With Musk guiding the Trump administration's efforts to cut government, many space observers think SLS's days are limited. Even Scott Pace, who advocated for the Space Launch System as executive secretary of the National Space Council during Trump's first term, said during Wednesday's hearing, "We need an off-ramp for reliance on the SLS."
On the Artemis program's only SLS flight to date, NASA sent an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon in late 2022. The second mission has been delayed because of problems with Orion's heat shield, and now isn't scheduled until 2026, with a human landing on the moon not expected until 2027.
With NASA's human lunar spaceflight missions on hold, the space agency is looking to companies such as Firefly, Intuitive Machines and others to conduct science experiments and test technologies that might be used for human exploration.
The Firefly-led mission, termed Ghost Riders in the Sky, aims to investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, study the electric and magnetic fields on the Moon's surface, and take X-ray images of Earth's magnetosphere. It will also test systems such as radiation-resistant computers and a method for using electric fields to move and clear dust.
"Everything was as planned," Firefly CEO Jason Kim said after the landing early Sunday. "From my observation, the team just nailed it … This is just the beginning. There are going to be more lunar landers annually."
NASA acting administrator Janet Petro called the Sunday touchdown an incredible achievement that "demonstrates how NASA and American space companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all."
The Intuitive Machines mission's first goal will be to land intact and upright after last year's mishap. If all goes well, the spacecraft will measure the potential presence of gases from the lunar soil and conduct an ice-mining experiment, among other tasks, NASA said.
Although the ispace mission launched on the flight as Firefly's Blue Ghost, the Japanese company's spacecraft is taking a longer route to the moon that includes an additional flyby. Like Intuitive Machines, this is ispace's second attempt at a lunar landing - it lost contact with its lander in a 2023 mission shortly before a presumed crash landing.
This time, ispace plans to leave small art installations on the moon and use a water electrolyzer machine to separate a drop of water into its elements. The company plans to take a sample of the moon and sell it to NASA for a few thousand dollars as part of a NASA contract to explore the legal framework for a system of commerce on the Moon
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