Private Moon Missions Include Hits and Misses

01The American Space Agency, NASA, is currently using private companies to launch spacecraft to the moon.

02So far, the private or commercial missions have included both successes and failures.

03The efforts support NASA's preparations for its future moon exploration plans, beginning with its Artemis program.

04Artemis aims to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

05But in recent years, a series of private spacecraft have been collecting data on lunar conditions and possible landing areas.

06The spacecraft are equipped with tools and instruments to help NASA learn about the moon's environment.

07Here is a look at some of the private lunar missions that have launched so far.

08In 2019, a commercially developed lander from Israel became the first spacecraft to attempt a landing on the moon.

09The lander was called Bereshit, which in Hebrew means in the beginning.

10The private mission was led by the company SpaceIL in cooperation with the Israeli Space Agency.

11On April 11, 2019, controllers on Earth lost contact with Bereshit as it was about to attempt a landing.

12Officials from SpaceIL later said the spacecraft suffered a non-survivable hard landing on the lunar surface.

13Shortly after the failure, SpaceIL announced it was planning another mission called Bereshit-2.

14No date has been set for that mission.

15The Japanese company IceSpace launched a lunar lander in 2023, but the lander, called Hakuto-R, crashed.

16The spacecraft was also carrying a rover, a vehicle to explore the moon's surface, as well as a small robot.

17IceSpace officials later said the crash was linked to the failure of a computer sensor.

18The Japanese company has another lander headed to the moon.

19Company officials have said the landing attempt of that spacecraft, Resilience, will take place in June.

20IceSpace says this mission will attempt to deploy a rover on the lunar surface to perform surface exploration and data collection.

21In February 2024, Texas-based Intuitive Machines became the first private company to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon.

22But its Odysseus lander fell over on its side.

23The spacecraft was able to operate only for a short time with limited communications.

24Another U.S.

25company, Astrobotic Technology, also tried to send a lander to the moon in 2024.

26But that lander, called Peregrine, developed a fuel leak shortly after launch and did not reach the moon.

27On March 2, U.S.

28company Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the moon.

29The lander touched down on part of the moon's near side called Mercurium.

30Firefly said the spacecraft landed in the right position and was operating normally.

31The latest landing attempt happened on March 6.

32Intuitive Machines built and operated the Athena lander.

33But that mission failed after the spacecraft landed sideways near the moon's south pole.

34Officials from Intuitive Machines said the lander missed its landing target by more than 250 meters and landed in a cold crater.

35The next day, the company said the spacecraft was able to send back pictures confirming its position and activating a few experiments.

36But shortly after, the lander stopped operating.

37Both Intuitive Machines and iSpace have plans for more moon missions in the coming years.

38The companies have contracts with NASA to provide spaceflight services and carry equipment and supplies to the moon.

39Such materials are called rocket payloads.

40The NASA program is officially called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, CLPS, program.

41It aims to turn over many of the country's major space missions to private companies to reduce costs.

42Several companies take part in the program.

43NASA says the agency aims to launch at least two private landers to the moon each year.

44That is because some missions will fail.

45The space agency's top science officer is Nikki Fox.

46She recently told the Associated Press, The missions open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon.

47I'm Brian Lynn.