WASHINGTON — NASA has selected three companies to fly four robotic lunar lander missions worth nearly $600 million as part of its lunar base ambitions, as the agency weighs sending a spare Mars rover to the moon.
During a June 30 online presentation, NASA officials announced they selected Astrobotic Technology, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines for lander missions scheduled for late 2028 with a combined value of $590.4 million.
Astrobotic received awards for two flights of its Peregrine lander, with a total value of $297.9 million. Firefly received an award for its Blue Ghost lander worth $144.2 million. Intuitive Machines won an order for its Nova-C lander worth $148.3 million.
Each lander will carry an identical set of three payloads. Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume Surface Studies, or SCALPSS, uses cameras to study the plume of regolith created by the exhaust of the lander’s engines. Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer, or LETS, measures the radiation environment in transit to the moon and on the surface. The Laser Retroreflector Array is a small passive instrument that reflects lasers used for lunar rangefinding. Versions of all three payloads have flown on previous lander missions.
