Tag: Lunar Lander
-
NASA Cancels $73M Draper CLPS Lunar Lander CP-12
NASA Cancels Draper’s $73M CLPS Mission — What Happened to CP-12? NASA has terminated a $73 million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order with Draper after successive lander redesigns pushed the projected lunar landing to 2030 or 2031 — six years behind the original 2025 schedule. Of that $73 million, NASA confirmed it paid…
-
NASA considers sending a spare Mars rover to the moon to rev up preparations for lunar base
An engineering development version of the NASA rovers currently operating on Mars takes a spin at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. (NASA via YouTube) NASA is considering repurposing an engineering development version of the nuclear-powered Mars rovers for a different destination: the moon’s south polar region. The plan calls for turning the test rover,…
-
NASA 2026 Human Lander Challenge Winners Named
Who Won NASA’s 2026 Human Lander Challenge for Lunar Life Support? NASA announced the winning university teams in the 2026 Human Lander Challenge on June 26, selecting student-developed solutions focused on environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) for crewed lunar landers supporting the Artemis Program. The competition marks one of the agency’s primary mechanisms…
-
Instinct Space Pivots From Lunar Navigation to Low-Cost Moon Landers
Instinct Space has announced a major strategic shift, moving away from plans to develop a lunar navigation constellation and instead focusing on low-cost lunar landers designed to provide more affordable access to the Moon. The London-based startup, which joined Y Combinator in 2025 to develop a GPS-like navigation network around the Moon, said challenges surrounding…
-
NASA Names Four-Astronaut Crew for Artemis III Docking Mission with SpaceX and Blue Origin Landers
NASA has selected three American astronauts and one European astronaut to fly on Artemis III, a landmark mission scheduled for late 2027 that will conduct the first in-space docking demonstrations between NASA’s Orion spacecraft and lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the crew during a ceremony in Houston…
-
Blue Origin Targets New Glenn Return to Flight Before End of 2026 After Launch Pad Explosion
Blue Origin plans to return its New Glenn rocket to flight before the end of 2026 despite an explosion last week that generated shockwaves reportedly comparable to a small earthquake and caused damage at the company’s launch complex. Following an assessment of Launch Complex 36A and surrounding infrastructure, Blue Origin Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp…
-
Impulse Space Raises $500 Million to Expand In-Space Transportation Business
Impulse Space has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $1 billion since its founding five years ago. The California-based company said the new capital will support hiring, expand vehicle development programs and help meet growing demand for in-space transportation services. Growing Demand for Space…
-
Blue Origin Pauses New Shepard Flights to Prioritize NASA Moon Lander Work
Blue Origin said on Friday it will pause flights of its New Shepard suborbital rocket for at least two years, effectively halting its space tourism operations as it redirects resources toward developing a lunar lander for NASA. The company said it would “pause its New Shepard flights and shift resources to further accelerate development of…
-
Falcon 9 launches second lunar mission of 2025 with IM-2 lander
SpaceX launched its second lunar mission of 2025, just over a month after flying the Firefly Blue Ghost and HAKUTO-R M2 Resilience landers to the Moon atop a single Falcon 9. Another Falcon 9, this time with the Intuitive Machines IM-2 NOVA-C lander on board, launched successfully from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy…
-
Chang Zheng 8A launches as Chinese spaceport expansions begin
Chinese spaceflight activities have been on pause in recent weeks due to the annual Spring Festival and New Lunar Year celebrations. Nonetheless, February saw the maiden launch of the Chang Zheng 8A (CZ-8A) rocket, which debuted new engines and other technologies to expand China’s spaceflight capabilities. Construction is underway to extend infrastructure at the Hainan…