NASA Provides Updates on Moon Base Cargo Landers, Tech Demonstrations

6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Artist’s rendering of the Moon’s South Pole region. Glowing points of light scattered across the lunar surface represent surface assets supporting sustained human and robotic operations near the South Pole. NASA is making progress in building the Moon Base, which will become a resilient outpost near the Moon’s South Pole for science, technology, and eventual human operations.

To advance lunar surface infrastructure development, commercial partners such as Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Lunar Systems are working toward delivering landers by 2028. These landers will deliver the foundational architecture for a sustained presence on the Moon. Their progress represents major advances in commercial lunar delivery and lays the groundwork for the systems and surface capabilities the Moon Base will rely on.

  Phase I of the Moon Base architecture plan, taking place now through 2029 , includes more than twenty robotic landings, with each mission designed to incrementally advance system capabilities and validate operational components for those that follow. Before astronauts arrive, robotic missions will deploy critical scientific instruments that characterize the lunar environment, test new technologies, and begin assembling the infrastructure needed for human habitation.   These early robotic missions also will create opportunities to gather insights and improve the overall reliability of the Moon Base architecture.

Recurring deliveries under NASA’s CLPS ( Commercial Lunar Payload Services ) initiative will play a vital role in building a dependable lunar supply chain, advancing the agency’s efforts toward a permanent human and robotic presence on the Moon.   On Tuesday, NASA released a Moon Base video update  offering a closer look at the progress these four companies are making to advance their flights and hardware to further the agency’s Moon Base objectives. Blue Origin Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK1 lander is progressing through integrated testing to prepare for its upcoming lunar delivery.

This first mission, named Endurance, represents a new class of commercial landers designed to deliver large-scale payloads to the lunar surface. The lander  successfully completed  an extensive environmental test campaign, including a thermal‑vacuum assessment at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, verifying its capability to perform under lunar‑like conditions.  The lander completed communications checkouts with NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and the Deep Space Network.

Up next, cryogenic propellants will be loaded as one of the final tests prior to integration for launch. Endurance will demonstrate precision landing capabilities, characterize the lunar environment, and tests autonomous systems for future Moon Base missions. Firefly Aerospace Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 builds on its first successful lunar landing with a larger, dual‑spacecraft configuration built specifically for operations on the Moon’s far side.

Blue Ghost is stacked on top of Elytra, Firefly’s orbital spacecraft, forming a 22‑foot‑tall system nearly three times the height of the spacecraft flown for Blue Ghost Mission 1 in 2025. With the ability to deploy payloads in orbit and on the lunar surface, Elytra brings added versatility to Moon Base logistics and science. Planned to be the first American landing on the Moon’s far side, Blue Ghost Mission 2 will explore a uniquely quiet region, allowing study of lunar far side geology and the cosmic Dark Ages, a time when newly-formed stars were just becoming visible.

Carrying three NASA payloads, the mission aims to advance scientific research and test technologies for future habitation and infrastructure development. The autonomous landing sequence demonstrated during its first mission exhibits Firefly’s performance in lunar flight and will play a role in supporting mission operations. Reusing subsystems from the previous mission allows Firefly to accelerate development and reduce risk, supporting Moon Base objectives for scalable and repeatable commercial lander capabilities.

Intuitive Machines Intuitive Machines’ IM‑3 mission highlights how commercial landers are essential infrastructure to establish the Moon Base. This mission represents Intuitive Machines’ third Nova-C lunar landing on the Moon, and introduces Altus-1, the company’s first lunar data‑relay satellite, which will fly alongside the lander. Named Trinity, Intuitive Machines’ Nova‑C lander assembly and integration are progressing to help meet the long-term need for regular cargo and science deliveries.

The top deck is aligned, and internal wiring is undergoing extensive testing before closeout panels are added. Recently, Intuitive Machines along with the X-Ray Cryogenic Facility crew at NASA’s Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama successfully completed long-range thermal vacuum testing to confirm that Intuitive Machines’ sensors operate accurately under both ends of the thermal range they may encounter during lunar descent. In the coming weeks, teams will complete the final stages of development, including engine integration and hot fire tests.

By deploying Altus-1 in lunar orbit with its three payloads and delivering five NASA payloads along with six commercial and one civil payload to the surface on IM-3, Intuitive Machines aims to advance Moon Base science objectives in  Reiner Gamma’s geomagnetic environment, a magnetic anomaly on the lunar surface. The IM-3 mission will be the first to explore the surface of a lunar swirl, enabling robotics and deployed instruments to deepen the scientific investigation of this mysterious region. Voyager Technologies Voyager Technologies’ Griffin‑1 lander is undergoing testing in the Environmental Test Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a critical step toward being ready for its mission to the Moon.

Testing at NASA JPL verifies commercial lunar landers meet the precision and durability needed to support Moon Base operations. Griffin-1, built as an infrastructure‑class lander, plans to launch in late 2026 and will transport the largest commercial payload ever delivered to the lunar surface. Five NASA payloads will be mounted on the Astrolab FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover that together will enable the mission objective of advancing surface mobility capabilities, technology demonstrations, and long‑duration lunar operations.

Griffin‑1 recently completed mass properties testing, providing fundamental data for guidance, navigation, control, and flight dynamics. Over the next several weeks, additional environmental tests replicating anticipated conditions, from launch through lunar landing, will further reduce mission risk and strengthen readiness for operations in the lunar environment. Once environmental testing concludes, Griffin‑1 will return to Voyager’s Lunar System Pittsburgh facility for final assembly.

The spacecraft will proceed through final launch-readiness operations before being shipped to Cape Canaveral. Northrop Grumman NASA is working with Northrop Grumman to develop three technology demonstration payloads slated for delivery to the lunar surface. These demonstrations build on power and avionics hardware developed for the Gateway program’s HALO (Habitation And Logistics Outpost) module, now being repurposed following NASA’s shift from an orbital-focused lunar strategy to one centered on surface operations.

The initial demonstrations will test survive-the-night systems capable of enduring the Moon’s extreme conditions, including multi-day shadow periods. They also will test shared surface power infrastructure designed to support critical payloads or other Moon Base assets, along with essential avionics and power capabilities. NASA is advancing development of the Moon Base by pursuing long-term lunar exploration and infrastructure initiatives designed to enable a sustained human presence on the Moon, supported by scientific deliveries and commercial lunar landers.