Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

General

NASA’s VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – now stands taller and more capable than ever. And that’s thanks to its mast. VIPER’s mast, and the suite of instruments affixed to it, looks a lot like the rover’s “neck” and “head.” The mast instruments are designed to help the team of rover drivers […]

Posted April 1, 2024

CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration)

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

CADRE Rovers’ Test Drive in the Mars Yard

Two full-scale development model rovers, part of NASA’s Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) technology demonstration, drive in the Mars Yard at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in this image from August 2023.

Posted March 26, 2024

Technology

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Earth's Moon

Game Changing Development Program

Robotics

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s Network of Small Moon-Bound Rovers Is Ready to Roll

Construction and testing are complete on the CADRE rovers, which will map the lunar surface together as a tech demo to show the promise of multirobot missions. A trio of small rovers that will explore the Moon in sync with one another are rolling toward launch. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California […]

Posted March 7, 2024

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA Collects First Surface Science in Decades via Commercial Moon Mission

For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA was able to collect data from new science instruments and technology demonstrations on the Moon. The data comes from the first successful landing of a delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.

Posted March 1, 2024

Artemis

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA, Intuitive Machines to Discuss Moon Mission, Science Successes

NASA and Intuitive Machines will co-host a televised news conference at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 28, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight the company’s first mission, known as IM-1. The lander, called Odysseus, carried six NASA science instruments to the South Pole region of the Moon as part of the […]

Posted February 27, 2024

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s LRO Images Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus Lander

On Feb. 22, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and softly landed near crater Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon at 6:24 p.m. EST. On Feb. 24, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site at an altitude of about 56 miles […]

Posted February 26, 2024

Missions

Artemis

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Tech Contributes to Soft Moon Landing, Agency Science Underway

Editor’s note: This release was updated Feb. 23, 2024, to add an image from the news conference and participant titles.

Posted February 24, 2024

Missions

Artemis

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA, Intuitive Machines to Discuss Historic Moon Mission Today

NASA and Intuitive Machines will host a televised news conference at 5 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 23, to detail the Odysseus lander’s historic soft Moon landing.

Posted February 23, 2024

Commercial Space

Artemis

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Johnson Space Center

Missions

NASA Headquarters

NASA Sets Coverage of First US Uncrewed Commercial Moon Landing

Editor’s Note: This advisory was updated Feb. 21, 2024, to reflect updated times for the target landing of Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander and NASA coverage of the event. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines is targeting no earlier than 5:30 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb.

Posted February 20, 2024

Artemis

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Kennedy Space Center

Intuitive Machines Launches to the Moon

At 1:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, named Odysseus, lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Posted February 15, 2024