Last week was a big week for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as it saw two landings by two different companies. The hope was that the agency would end up with two successful providers of NASA science to the Moon’s surface; instead, it saw one, with the other falling over once again.
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This is a press released shared to Space Explored but written by the company/agency in question, not the Space Explored team. It has been slightly edited for better reading.
CEDAR PARK, Texas, Nov. 25, 2024 – Firefly Aerospace, the leader in end-to-end responsive space services, today announced it successfully completed environmental testing on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander ahead of its first mission to the Moon supporting NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Firefly is now preparing to ship the lander to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in mid-December for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a six-day window that opens no earlier than mid-January 2025.
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Over the last few weeks we’ve been following the travels of Intuitive Machine‘s IM-1 mission. The first of its kind lander made several firsts, the biggest being bringing the commercial market to the lunar surface for the first time. While the mission has ended for now, there’s a lot to talk about good old Odysseus.
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On Valentines Day SpaceX showed us its love for lifting rockets off into space with a double header from both LC-39A and SLC-40. The two launches, roughly eight hours apart, were for Intuitive Machines‘ Nova-C lunar lander and a classified payload for the US Space Force.
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While ULA’s mission was a resounding success, the same cannot be said for the payload that was tucked inside Vulcan‘s fairing. While details are slim, we know that the first Astrobotic Peregrine lander has suffered a failure in its propulsion system, ending it’s chance of a soft lunar landing.
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At 2:18:38 A.M. ET Monday morning, ULA debuted its Vulcan rocket after years of delays and setbacks. With a highly expected successful deployment of Astrobotic‘s first Peregrine lunar lander, Vulcan kickstarts ULA’s new commercial launch future as well as NASA‘s new exploration of the Moon.
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Intuitive Machines announced Friday that it has received its launch window for its IM-1 mission to land on the Moon for NASA’s CLPS program. This could quickly become the first CLPS mission if Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One delays from its currently launch date of Christmas Eve.
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Early Friday morning, Astrobotic’s first lunar lander departed its offices in Pittsburgh for a drive down to Florida to be integrated onto the Atlas V for launch as soon as December. A flight the company has been waiting to do for years.
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