Get in, landers, we’re going to the Moon.
Background: NASA established the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in 2018, in response to the call in Space Policy Directive-1 to return people to the Moon. Under the program, NASA awards contracts for commercial lander companies to bring space agency payloads to the lunar surface. The companies can then sell extra space on each of these NASA-subsidized missions to commercial payloads looking for a ride to the Moon.
CLPS is intended to build on NASA’s successful commercial cargo and crew programs, allowing the agency to support a still-young commercial lunar delivery economy with the goal of eventually being one customer of many.
CLPS also is working to serve goals related to astronaut landings. “The CLPS model offers a unique opportunity to test and refine technologies and integrate systems that will provide insight for future crewed missions to [the] Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign,” NASA stated.
Flyers: The pool of CLPS money includes $2.6B that can be awarded through November 2028. The space agency has selected more than a dozen entities that are eligible to win a portion of that money—though only three of them have flown missions so far:
- Astrobotic Technology’s first mission with its Peregrine lander failed to reach the Moon due to a failure with the spacecraft’s propellant system. It has been awarded a second mission for its Griffin lander.
- Firefly Aerospace has won two CLPS task orders. Its first mission nailed its landing on the Moon.
- Intuitive Machines has flown two landing missions (both of which toppled over after touching down). It has been awarded two other contracts for upcoming flights.
The team of Draper, ispace, and Karman Space & Defense has also been awarded a mission, but they’ve yet to fly.
In the wings: A handful of companies are eligible to receive contracts, but have not yet received a task order to fly. While some of them have gone out of business in the intervening years, some companies waiting for their first mission to be awarded include:
- Blue Origin
- Ceres Robotics
- Lockheed Martin Space
- Moon Express
- ORBITBeyond
- Sierra Nevada Corp.
- SpaceX
What’s next: NASA is already working on the next phase of the CLPS program, which will be instrumental in building its Moon Base.
CLPS 2.0 is expected to fund larger lunar landers to carry more cargo on a monthly cadence to the Moon’s surface. The second iteration of the program, which will see companies work more closely with NASA officials for development, is expected to have a pot of $6B to be awarded over 10 years, with missions scheduled over 15 years.
Read more:
- CLPS Companies Excited For NASA’s ‘Opportunity Bomb’ Lunar Plan
- NASA Awards LTV, Lunar Transport Contracts
- Bridenstine on DoD’s Cislunar Goals, CLPS, and Returning to the Moon
NASA Watchdog: Launch Infrastructure Nearing Capacity
NASA’s launch facilities will likely reach capacity by the end of the decade as the number of commercial launches continues to skyrocket, according to a report from the space agency’s inspector general released Monday.
Bill Spotlight: NEW HORIZON Act
A bipartisan pair of senators introduced a bill last week that would consider allowing national security missions to tap into the commercial orbital data center craze.
FCC Gives Amazon Leo More Time to Launch
The FCC has granted Amazon Leo more time to get at least half of its constellation into orbit, but placed some restrictions on the satellite operator to encourage launching as quickly as possible.
NDAA Would Cut SDA, RCO Offices
The House’s annual defense authorization bill would eliminate the two offices within the Pentagon designed to speed up space acquisition.
Satellogic is building an app store. The EO satellite operator today announced a partnership with SpaceKnow, the AI-powered geospatial intelligence analysis company, to build AI applications on top of Satellogic’s growing stock of satellite imagery.
The partnership reflects a fundamental shift in Satellogic’s business model, which is moving away from one-off imagery sales, and toward a data-as-a-service model. Satellogic will continue gathering EO imagery, while SpaceKnow and other partners—including SynMax—use that data to build AI applications for customers.
Like magic: The shift comes ahead of Satellogic’s planned launch of its next-gen constellation—called Merlin—which will allow the company to map the entire world at one-meter resolution. The first Merlin satellite is expected to fly in October, and the full system will come online in 2027.
Keep reading