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Everything you need to know about NASA CLPS Moon landing missions
A look at the armada of robotic landers NASA is riding to the Moon this decade.
NASA is returning humans to the Moon later in the decade, but a fleet of agency-supported robotic spacecraft will touch down on lunar soil starting this year. With its $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) initiative, NASA has been competitively funding commercial companies to build spacecraft that will autonomously land on the Moon, carrying with them the agency’s science and technology payloads to geologically diverse places.
Upcoming CLPS Moon landings
To date, NASA has funded several commercial companies for these CLPS Moon landing missions with the following contract values at the time of their selections:
- Mission 1, January 8, 2024: $79.5 million contract to Astrobotic
- Mission 2, February 12, 2024: $77 million contract to Intuitive Machines
- Mission 3, Late 2024: $47 million contract to Intuitive Machines
- Mission 4, 2024: $93.3 million contract to Firefly
- (Cancelled) Mission 5, November 2023: $75.9 million contract to Masten Space
- (Cancelled) Mission 6, November…