NASA plans to award three new lunar task orders this year through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, including a mission for an orbiter dedicated to imaging and surveying the Moon that is expected eventually to replace the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been operating since 2009.
Executives at Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines, the two companies that have carried out lunar landing operations under the CLPS program, disclosed the new expectations during earnings calls held this week. The companies said NASA could award the three task orders before the end of the year.
Two Landing Missions and an Orbiter
Two of the anticipated missions will be landing missions, continuing the pattern that has dominated the CLPS program since the first task orders were issued in 2019. The companies did not disclose additional details about the two missions.
The third mission was described by Jason Kim, chief executive officer of Firefly Aerospace, as an orbital imaging service. Steve Altemus, chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines, said that an order expected in late summer or early fall would concern an orbiter to survey the Moon, with the goal of providing an alternative to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA developed the current spacecraft more than two decades ago under the “Vision for Space Exploration” initiative. The spacecraft was launched in 2009 and is equipped with a high-resolution camera and other instruments to study the Moon. It is still operating well as part of an extended mission scheduled to continue through 2028. However, its aging has led scientists for years to call for a replacement spacecraft to continue lunar research and support future landing missions.
NASA has not yet disclosed an announced plan to develop a successor to the spacecraft, either through the CLPS program or through another pathway. The agency also provides limited details about the anticipated task orders or ongoing competitions, and it does not publish a source-selection statement after awarding the order. The report noted that the schedule for CLPS missions on NASA’s website does not include some recent awards and also lacks updated dates for other awards.
Firefly and Intuitive Machines in a Strong Position
The two companies have experience relevant to the potential orbital mission. Firefly announced in 2025 its intention to develop a commercial lunar imaging service called Ocula, using cameras mounted on Elytra vehicles that will accompany future Blue Ghost landing missions.
Intuitive Machines has a NASA contract to manage operations for the high-resolution camera on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in addition to the ShadowCam camera developed by NASA and operating on South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter.
Moving Toward Faster Production and Larger Missions
Firefly and Intuitive Machines each have four landing missions in their backlogs. These include missions awarded in June under the CLPS-8 task order, which also included two landers for Astrobotic, now known as Voyager Lunar Systems. The four vehicles will carry an identical set of instruments.
The companies said the goal of CLPS-8 is to test the ability to produce a standardized model of lander more quickly, rather than building a dedicated vehicle for each mission. Intuitive Machines discussed a 26-month schedule for building the vehicle, while Firefly said its design, which is close to a production-ready model, would help shorten manufacturing cycles.
Both companies expanded their production facilities in preparation for this. Intuitive Machines added 75,000 square feet of production space at its Houston headquarters to build landers and its constellation of five lunar data-relay satellites. Firefly also said it had increased the area of its clean rooms by more than fourfold.
Preparing for the CLPS 2.0 Program
Altemus expects the final task order under the original CLPS contract, known as CP-32, to be awarded early next year, before NASA moves to a CLPS 2.0 contract. The new contract has a maximum value of $10 billion over ten years, with a five-year extension option that increases the maximum value by $5 billion.
The two companies intend to compete for the contract while developing larger landers. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C vehicle has a payload capacity of about 100 kilograms, while Nova-D, being used on the IM-6 mission awarded in March, can carry about 500 kilograms.
Intuitive Machines is considering producing a second Nova-D vehicle in parallel with IM-6, in anticipation of securing another mission within the same time frame, in 2029. The company is also studying a modified version with three engines that could deliver up to one metric ton to the lunar surface.
Altemus said NASA is looking for vehicles capable of delivering between two and five metric tons to the surface to support the anticipated needs of a lunar base. Firefly, for its part, plans to expand the capabilities of its Blue Ghost vehicles through a scalable modular design for transporting infrastructure payloads weighing several tons.