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As of 16 October 2026, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Voyager Technologies are the main commercial providers in NASA’s Moon Base lander plan. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance has the clearest stated precision-landing objective: an attempted landing on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge while testing autonomous guidance, navigation and control (GNC) and cryogenic propulsion. Firefly, Intuitive Machines and Voyager are pursuing related capabilities through repeatable delivery, mapping, communications and infrastructure missions. Astrobotic has two additional NASA deliveries targeted for late 2028.
What counts as a precision-landing demonstration?
A precision landing is more than reaching the Moon. The lander must navigate to a constrained site, identify hazards, control its descent autonomously or with limited ground intervention, and touch down within an operationally useful area. NASA’s current commercial program combines direct technology demonstrations with missions that make precision navigation an enabling capability for later infrastructure and science deliveries.
All dates below are planned or targeted. NASA and the companies can change launch, landing and delivery schedules as testing and mission reviews progress.
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| Company and mission | Planned timing and destination | Precision-landing relevance | Key payloads or infrastructure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Origin — Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance | Planned South Pole attempt at Shackleton Connecting Ridge | NASA explicitly identifies precision landing, autonomous GNC and cryogenic propulsion as demonstrations | SCALPSS plume-imaging investigation and a Laser Retroreflector Array |
| Voyager Technologies — Griffin-1 | Targeted late 2026 launch to the lunar South Pole region | Navigation and landing-site operations supported by three-dimensional lidar mapping; it is not a completed precision-landing demonstration | Lunar LiDAR Demonstration, two Laser Retroreflector Arrays and the LDES dust sensor |
| Firefly Aerospace — Blue Ghost series | Mission 2 planned for 2026 at the lunar far side; Mission 3 targets Gruithuisen Domes in 2028; a fourth CLPS mission targets the South Pole region in 2029 | Repeatable autonomous commercial delivery and reuse of proven systems, rather than a separately named precision-landing test | Elytra orbital vehicle for Mission 2 and a lunar lander; later missions extend delivery cadence and geographic difficulty |
| Intuitive Machines — Nova-C and Nova-D | IM-3 at Reiner Gamma; IM-5 targets Mons Malapert near the South Pole; a larger Nova-D mission is planned under a 2026 NASA award | Autonomous operations, lessons from earlier landings and increasing landing cadence support precision as an enabling capability | Altus-1 lunar relay satellite; communications, navigation and infrastructure objectives |
| Astrobotic — two later NASA deliveries | Both targeted for late 2028 | Planned deliveries using updated versions of lander designs that have already flown; the awards do not by themselves establish a new precision-landing demonstration | NASA science and technology payload delivery under the Moon Base plan |
Blue Origin: the most explicit precision-landing test
Endurance’s target site and technologies
NASA says Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance will travel to the lunar South Pole and attempt a landing on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge. The site is significant because a narrow, rugged polar landing area demands accurate terrain-relative navigation, hazard avoidance and controlled descent.
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Endurance is explicitly designed to demonstrate precision-landing technologies, autonomous GNC and cryogenic propulsion. That makes it the clearest match for a reader looking for a mission whose stated purpose includes precision landing itself, not merely a landing that may use those capabilities. Its payloads include NASA’s SCALPSS plume-imaging investigation, which records how rocket exhaust interacts with the surface, and a Laser Retroreflector Array for later ranging and navigation work.
Voyager Technologies: mapping and infrastructure at the South Pole
Griffin-1’s navigation role
Voyager’s Griffin-1 is an infrastructure-class lander planned for launch in late 2026 to the lunar South Pole region. NASA says the spacecraft is undergoing environmental testing and will carry the Lunar LiDAR Demonstration, two Laser Retroreflector Arrays and the LDES dust sensor.
The lidar experiment creates three-dimensional maps. Those maps can support navigation, landing-site assessment and surface operations, particularly where shadows, slopes and boulders make a site harder to approach. Griffin-1 therefore contributes to the precision-landing problem through sensing and operational infrastructure, but it should not be described as a completed precision landing or as proof that the demonstration has already occurred.
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Blue Ghost Mission 2
Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 is planned for 2026 and is intended to make the first American landing on the lunar far side. The mission combines an Elytra orbital vehicle with a lunar lander. NASA says Firefly is reusing proven systems from its successful 2025 mission to support repeatable commercial delivery and reduce risk.
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Later Blue Ghost missions
Firefly’s third mission targets the Gruithuisen Domes in 2028. Its fourth CLPS mission is targeted for the South Pole region in 2029. The series is best understood as a campaign to demonstrate that autonomous delivery can be repeated across different locations, including the communications and lighting challenges of the far side and the terrain constraints of the poles. NASA’s descriptions emphasize cadence and reuse rather than labeling one Firefly flight as a standalone precision-landing experiment.
Intuitive Machines: landing cadence tied to lunar communications
Nova-C missions
NASA describes Intuitive Machines’ third Nova-C landing, IM-3, as a mission to Reiner Gamma carrying the Altus-1 lunar relay satellite. Reiner Gamma is a distinct target from the South Pole missions, allowing the company to build operational experience across sites while delivering communications capability.
Nova-D and the South Pole
In March 2026, Intuitive Machines announced a $180.4 million NASA award for a larger Nova-D lander mission. The company says IM-3, IM-4 and IM-5 incorporate lessons from earlier missions. IM-5 targets Mons Malapert near the lunar South Pole and is intended to support communications, navigation and infrastructure objectives.
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For Intuitive Machines, precision landing is an enabling capability within a broader architecture: autonomous operations must place payloads where relay, navigation and future surface activity can use them. The program’s evidence is its planned sequence of missions and iterative vehicle development, not a single mission branded as a precision-landing demonstration.
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Astrobotic: two additional deliveries planned for late 2028
NASA’s June 2026 award announcement selected Astrobotic for two deliveries targeted for late 2028, alongside one Firefly delivery and one Intuitive Machines delivery. NASA says the awards use updated versions of lander designs that have already flown and are intended to improve mission cadence and reliability.
These awards establish planned Moon Base deliveries. They do not, by themselves, establish that Astrobotic is conducting a new, separately identified precision-landing technology demonstration. Their value to the architecture is additional flight opportunities and the use of updated, flight-tested designs.
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Landing-site difficulty and latitude
- Blue Origin: Shackleton Connecting Ridge at the lunar South Pole, a constrained site explicitly selected for a precision-landing attempt.
- Voyager: South Pole region, with lidar intended to map terrain for navigation and surface operations.
- Firefly: Far-side landing planned for 2026, followed by the Gruithuisen Domes in 2028 and a South Pole target in 2029.
- Intuitive Machines: Reiner Gamma for IM-3 and Mons Malapert near the South Pole for IM-5.
- Astrobotic: Delivery destinations for the late-2028 awards are planned under NASA’s Moon Base architecture; the award announcement does not identify a single precision-landing site.
Autonomy, GNC and sensing
Endurance has the strongest explicit autonomy-and-GNC demonstration language. Griffin-1 adds lidar mapping and retroreflectors that can improve future navigation and site operations. Firefly emphasizes autonomous repeatability through reuse of systems from its 2025 mission. Intuitive Machines combines autonomous operations with relay and navigation infrastructure. Astrobotic’s late-2028 awards rely on updated versions of designs that have already flown.
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Hardware heritage and schedule signals
Griffin-1’s environmental testing is a concrete pre-launch milestone, but its late-2026 launch remains a target. Firefly and Intuitive Machines are planning follow-on missions that incorporate previously flown or previously developed systems. Astrobotic’s awards specify updated designs with flight heritage. Blue Origin’s Endurance is a planned demonstration whose technical objectives are unusually explicit, but its landing date is also subject to change.
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NASA’s larger Moon Base delivery plan
NASA says Phase I of its Moon Base architecture plan includes more than twenty robotic lunar landings through 2029. In 2026, NASA awarded nearly $600 million for four late-2028 Moon Base missions: $297.9 million for Astrobotic’s two deliveries, $144.2 million for a Firefly Aerospace delivery and $148.3 million for an Intuitive Machines delivery.
Lori Glaze, NASA associate administrator for the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate, said: “These new awards to our commercial partners, totaling nearly $600 million to land more missions on the Moon with science payloads, demonstrate our commitment to accelerating our effort to build a long-term presence on the lunar surface, and give us more opportunity to develop the skills we need to prosper there.”
The practical implication is that precision landing will be developed alongside delivery cadence, mapping, communications, navigation and surface infrastructure. Among the current plans, Blue Origin makes precision landing the clearest named demonstration; the other providers build the operational foundation needed to land useful payloads repeatedly at increasingly demanding sites.
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