The year 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal period for commercial lunar exploration, with half a dozen missions slated to launch over the coming months. These ventures, led by private companies under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, mark a significant expansion of commercial
A Busy Start to the Year
The first commercial mission of 2025 launched on January 15, when Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander, carrying ten science payloads for NASA and other partners, is expected to touch down on March 2 in Mare Crisium. It will investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, measure magnetic and electric fields, and capture X-ray images of Earth's magnetosphere.
The same Falcon 9 rocket also deployed the Resilience lander from Japan’s ispace. Resilience is taking a low-energy trajectory and is expected to arrive at Mare Frigoris in late May or June. It carries a micro rover, Tenacious, equipped with cameras, a shovel, and a Swedish-designed miniature house known as the Moonhouse. Additional payloads include a deep space radiation probe and a food production experiment.
Intuitive Machines Expands Lunar Presence
Following its historic 2024 Odysseus moon landing, Intuitive Machines is preparing for its second CLPS mission, IM-2 Athena, set to launch by late February. Athena will land at the Moon’s south pole and deploy a drill and mass spectrometer for NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), designed to assess lunar water resources. The mission will also carry Lunar Trailblazer, a small orbiter studying lunar water distribution, and an Intuitive Machines Micro-Nova Hopper, a propulsive drone that will hop across the surface.
Blue Origin’s Lunar Ambitions
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander could launch as early as spring or summer, though delays remain possible. The company plans to deliver NASA’s Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) to the lunar south pole. The data collected will inform future crewed Artemis missions. Meanwhile, Pathfinder, Blue Origin’s first demonstration lunar mission, could launch by March 2025.
Future Missions on the Horizon
Astrobotic, whose Peregrine lander suffered a failed mission in early 2024, will make another attempt later this year. Griffin Mission 1, slated for the fall, was initially set to carry NASA’s VIPER rover, but the project was canceled due to cost concerns. Instead, the mission will include a CubeRover and a laser retroreflector array for location pinpointing.
Intuitive Machines is planning a third mission, IM-3, for late 2025 or early 2026. The mission will target Reiner Gamma, a lunar swirl with a unique mini-magnetosphere, and deploy multiple rovers, including the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) and CADRE, a trio of autonomous robots.
No Humans on the Moon—Yet
Despite the surge in commercial missions, human exploration of the Moon remains on hold. NASA recently delayed its Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight around the Moon, to April 2026. Artemis III, which will see astronauts walk on the lunar surface, is now scheduled for mid-2027.
With numerous commercial ventures in the pipeline, 2025 is poised to be a defining year for lunar exploration. Whether all planned missions meet their timelines remains to be seen, but the race to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon is well underway.
A SpaceX capsule has delivered four astronauts to the ISS for NASA’s latest crew rotation, allowing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return after nine months stranded due to a faulty Boeing Starliner capsule. Their scheduled departure on Wednesday has drawn political attention.
NASA and SpaceX have delayed the launch of a replacement crew meant to return stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth from the International Space Station.
NASA is set to launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida on Wednesday, sending a replacement crew to the International Space Station (ISS) while preparing to bring home two U.S. astronauts stranded in space for nine months after Boeing’s Starliner faced technical issues.
Nightclub fires have claimed hundreds of lives over the years, often due to poor safety measures. From China to Türkiye, negligence, overcrowding, and lack of emergency exits have been recurring factors in some of the deadliest nightclub tragedies.
The Vatican has released the first image of Pope Francis in hospital since he was admitted for double pneumonia, showing the 88-year-old pontiff seated in a chapel at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
The US has vowed to keep striking Yemen’s Houthis until they stop attacks on shipping, as the Iran-aligned group signalled potential escalation following US airstrikes that reportedly killed at least 31 people.
Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, has expressed optimism that the U.S. president will speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week to discuss ending the ongoing war in Ukraine, following what he described as productive talks in Moscow.
A nationwide blackout in Cuba left 10 million without power. While parts of Havana have electricity, most areas remain dark. The outage, the fourth since October, highlights the country's energy crisis amid fuel shortages and ageing infrastructure.
The inside of a Herculaneum delicate & ancient scroll, unseen for nearly 2,000 years, has been revealed using Artificial Intelligence.
World leaders welcomed the 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has agreed to, calling it a step toward ending the conflict with Russia.
In Tuesday’s closely watched parliamentary election, Greenland’s pro-business opposition Demokraatit party took a commanding lead after over 90% of the ballots were counted.
BioNTech forecasts a revenue decline for 2025, expecting between 1.7 billion and 2.2 billion euros, down from 2.75 billion euros last year. This drop is due to Pfizer write-downs and stable vaccination rates. BioNTech also plans significant job cuts and new hires.
Germany's election-winning conservative CDU/CSU bloc, led by Friedrich Merz, and the Social Democrats (SPD) have reached an agreement in principle with the Greens on a significant increase in state borrowing ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote.
BMW expects a €1 billion loss for 2025 due to the US-EU tariff dispute, including a 25% duty on certain vehicles and tariffs on its China-made electric cars. The company hopes not all tariffs will remain for the full year.
Uzbekistan has signed an agreement with French and Japanese companies to initiate uranium production in the Navoi region by the end of 2025.
The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad and some Hong Kong-flagged vessels that are part of a shadow fleet that helps disguise Iranian oil shipments, the Treasury Department said.
Türkiye’s state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation signed a joint venture agreement with U.S. oil giants Continental Resources and TransAtlantic Petroleum, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced.
Nightclub fires have claimed hundreds of lives over the years, often due to poor safety measures. From China to Türkiye, negligence, overcrowding, and lack of emergency exits have been recurring factors in some of the deadliest nightclub tragedies.
The Vatican has released the first image of Pope Francis in hospital since he was admitted for double pneumonia, showing the 88-year-old pontiff seated in a chapel at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
The US has vowed to keep striking Yemen’s Houthis until they stop attacks on shipping, as the Iran-aligned group signalled potential escalation following US airstrikes that reportedly killed at least 31 people.
Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, has expressed optimism that the U.S. president will speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week to discuss ending the ongoing war in Ukraine, following what he described as productive talks in Moscow.
A nationwide blackout in Cuba left 10 million without power. While parts of Havana have electricity, most areas remain dark. The outage, the fourth since October, highlights the country's energy crisis amid fuel shortages and ageing infrastructure.
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