In late February 2025, a groundbreaking lunar lander will embark on its mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, equipped with advanced instruments designed to explore the mysteries hidden just beneath the lunar surface. This mission marks the third lunar endeavor of the year, emphasizing 2025 as a pivotal year for lunar exploration. Following a year of significant advancements in space exploration, the focus remains firmly on the moon. However, there may be changes in priorities if political shifts occur, particularly regarding potential plans for Mars under Elon Musk’s leadership. As it stands, the upcoming lunar missions promise to be a dynamic sequence of events aimed at enhancing our understanding of the moon.

Last year began with a significant milestone when Astrobotics successfully launched its Peregrine lander, initiating a series of missions spearheaded by companies participating in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Although Peregrine faced challenges and ultimately failed to complete its mission due to a propellant leak shortly after launch, the industry quickly rebounded. Just weeks later, Intuitive Machines achieved a historic milestone by landing its craft on the moon, marking the first successful lunar landing by a private entity. Despite some payloads not functioning as intended, essential data was still collected and transmitted, demonstrating the resilience of commercial space endeavors.

As we move into 2025, NASA has lined up an ambitious schedule of half a dozen CLPS missions. The first of these missions, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, took to the skies on January 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This launch was notable not only for Firefly but also for the Japanese company ispace, whose lunar lander, Hakuto-R, shared the ride, highlighting the global collaboration in lunar exploration efforts.

Firefly’s lunar lander, known as Blue Ghost, is projected to make its lunar landing on March 2, targeting the Mare Crisium region. This 6.6-foot-tall solar-powered craft is outfitted with ten scientific payloads for NASA and its partners. Among these is an innovative dust shield system designed to test methods for preventing the accumulation of lunar dust on sensitive instruments. Additionally, it carries tools for sample collection testing, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation technology, and a radiation-hardened computer. According to NASA, the mission aims to explore various aspects of the lunar environment, including investigating heat flow from the lunar interior and analyzing interactions between lunar plumes and surfaces. Furthermore, it will capture X-ray images of the Earth’s magnetosphere, contributing valuable data to our understanding of both celestial bodies.

On a different trajectory, ispace’s Resilience lander is taking a low-energy approach and is expected to reach its destination, Mare Frigoris, by late May or June. This lander carries a micro rover named Tenacious, designed for surface exploration, material collection, and data transmission. Equipped with a camera and a shovel, Tenacious also features an artistic element: a small model house titled “Moonhouse,” created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. Additionally, the lander is equipped with water electrolyzer technology, a deep-space radiation probe, and a food production experiment module. A commemorative alloy plate from Bandai Namco Research Institute, styled after the Gundam franchise’s “Charter of the Universal Century,” adds a unique cultural touch to the mission.

Intuitive Machines, which achieved the historic feat of the first commercial moon landing with its Odysseus craft last year, is preparing to launch its second CLPS mission, IM-2, in the coming weeks, around the end of February. This mission, featuring the Nova-C lander named Athena, is aimed at the lunar south pole and will carry a meter-long drill and a mass spectrometer as part of NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1). The primary objective of this mission is to demonstrate the viability of drilling for lunar samples while analyzing them on-site for resources like water. Furthermore, Athena will also serve as a rideshare for NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, a compact orbiter designed to investigate the presence and distribution of lunar water and its geological implications.

In addition to the PRIME-1 instruments, Athena will carry a laser retroreflector array, an Intuitive Machines Micro-Nova Hopper, which is a propulsive drone designed to deploy from the Nova-C lander and traverse the lunar surface, and a Lunar Surface Communication System developed by Nokia. This innovative system, described as “network in a box,” aims to establish the first cellular network on the moon, enabling connectivity for high-definition video streaming, command-and-control communications, and telemetry data exchange between the lander and surface vehicles.

Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander is also in the pipeline and may embark on its maiden voyage as early as this spring or summer. John Couluris, a senior vice president at Blue Origin, indicated in an interview last March that the company anticipated landing on the moon within 12 to 16 months from that time. However, this statement came before the successful launch of the New Glenn rocket, which is intended to carry the lander. Given the previous delays in the project, the timeline remains uncertain but hopeful.

In August, NASA disclosed via an FCC filing that it selected Blue Origin’s lander to transport a camera system known as the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) to the moon’s south pole this year under the CLPS program. This mission is critical, as the data collected will aid in the planning of NASA’s first crewed Artemis moon landing. Although SCALPSS payloads have previously flown on other CLPS missions, the thrust capabilities of Blue Origin’s Mark 1 lander are more aligned with the requirements of the Human Landing System that will ultimately support astronaut missions.

In another announcement from Blue Origin earlier this month, it was revealed that the demonstration lunar mission, Pathfinder, could potentially launch as soon as March 2025, according to reports from SpaceNews. However, given the complexities involved, delays should be anticipated.

The subsequent CLPS mission, after Blue Origin’s, is not expected to launch until the fall, allowing Astrobotic another opportunity to attempt a lunar landing. This time, Astrobotic will deploy its larger Griffin lander to a region near the lunar south pole. Griffin Mission 1 was initially intended to carry NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), but due to delays and rising costs, the project was shelved late last year. Nevertheless, the Griffin lander will not be empty; it will transport a small solar-powered CubeRover and a laser retroreflector array to assist in determining the lander’s precise location.

Moreover, there is potential for a third Intuitive Machines mission to launch before the year concludes. NASA and Intuitive Machines are targeting late 2025 or early 2026 for the launch of IM-3, which will carry a suite of instruments aimed at examining the magnetic and plasma characteristics of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl, an area known for its unique “mini-magnetosphere.” The mission will include the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), which is designed to autonomously navigate the lunar surface, along with three small rovers from the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project that will showcase collaborative autonomous operations. Additionally, the European Space Agency’s MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector and the Lunar Space Environment Monitor from South Korea’s Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) will accompany IM-3, adding to the mission’s scientific breadth.

As 2025 unfolds, we can anticipate a surge of activity surrounding lunar exploration endeavors. However, one notable absence will be human presence on the moon, as NASA has updated the timelines for the Artemis missions. In December, the agency announced that the inaugural crewed flight, Artemis II, is now set for April 2026, a shift from the previously targeted September 2025 date. Furthermore, the highly anticipated Artemis III mission, which aims to send astronauts to the lunar surface, is now expected to launch no earlier than mid-2027, reflecting the complexities involved in preparing for crewed space missions.