Lunar lander developers say they are ready to meet anticipated increased NASA demand

WASHINGTON — Two lunar lander companies say they are ready to meet NASA’s plans for a major increase in the cadence of such missions but offered few details about how they would meet that new demand.

In separate earnings calls March 19, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines said they endorsed plans discussed by top NASA officials, including Administrator Jared Isaacman, to fly robotic lunar landers to the moon as frequently as once per month.

“Administrator Isaacman’s recent call for a monthly cadence of lunar landers to the moon’s south pole, starting next year, is exactly the type of forward thinking that Firefly embraces,” said Jason Kim, chief executive of Firefly.

“Administrator Isaacman has called for a higher cadence of missions to fly more equipment to the moon to learn about a sustained presence on the moon,” said Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines. “I think that’s excellent news for Intuitive Machines.”

NASA has not provided details about how it will implement that proposed increase in lunar lander missions, but both companies stand to benefit. Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines account for three of the four commercial lunar lander missions flown to date as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and the companies have five additional CLPS missions under contract.

That proposal, though, faces technical challenges. One is demonstrating the ability to land safely: only Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 lander in 2025 was able to successfully land on the moon and complete its full mission. Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lander in 2024 and IM-2 in 2025 both tipped over on landing, limiting their missions.

Another factor is cadence. Neither company has flown a lander mission since Blue Ghost 1 and IM-2 landed days apart in March 2025. Altemus said IM-3 is scheduled for “later this year,” while Kim said Blue Ghost 2 is slated to launch late this year or early next year.

Despite operating at less than an annual cadence, the two CEOs said they believed their companies could significantly increase production of lunar landers to match greater demand from NASA.

Kim said Firefly has been investing in expansion of clean rooms and other production facilities to accommodate a higher flight rate, some of which has been funded by a grant from the Texas Space Commission.

“That will allow us to ramp up steadily the number of lunar landers we can build simultaneously,” he said. NASA plans for monthly lunar lander missions “is just a validation of the investments that we have already made.”

“Calling for that kind of cadence of missions,” Altemus said of the increased flight rate, “really does improve reliability in our systems and allows us to grow a more sustainable business.”

He noted planning by NASA for a “CLPS 2.0” contract vehicle that had been in the works before recent discussion by NASA officials of a higher flight rate. He said that contract could help through the ability to do block buys of landers, as well as production of larger landers.

Neither company, though, offered an estimate of how many additional lander missions per year they believe they could develop in the next few years.

Alpha plans

Lunar landers are just part of the overall capabilities of the two companies. At Firefly, much of its recent focus has been on the successful return to flight of its Alpha rocket March 11.

“We were dead center on target all the way up,” Kim said of that launch, which carried a technology demonstration payload for Lockheed Martin. “We completed all mission objectives.”

The company is still reviewing data from that launch, but he said initial analysis indicates the vehicle performed as planned. “Everything I’ve seen to date looks nominal.”

That launch was the last of the original Block 1 version of Alpha, with subsequent launches using an enhanced Block 2 that stretches the first and second stages and includes a new avionics and battery system, as well as improved thermal protection systems.

Kim said Firefly expects to perform three more Alpha launches this year but did not give a timeframe for the next launch.

“We are always working closely with our customer for their customer readiness,” he said. “We are excited about accelerating the roadmap for our transition to Block 2.”

Firefly is also making progress on its medium-class Eclipse rocket it is developing with Northrop Grumman. He said the company plans to ship the first stage for the first launch to Northrop later this year, to be integrated with a second stage from Northrop for the initial variant of the rocket.

He said the first full Eclipse rocket, using first and second stages built by Firefly, is slated to launch no earlier than 2027.

Integrating Lanteris

Intuitive Machines has been focused recently on completing its acquisition of satellite manufacturer Lanteris Space Systems, the former Maxar Space Systems. That $800 million acquisition, announced in November, closed in January.

With Lanteris, Intuitive Machines expects to generate up to $1 billion in revenue in 2026. About two-thirds of that would come from Lanteris, said Pete McGrath, Intuitive Machines’ chief financial officer, on the call.

“Our strategy will continue to be moon-first infrastructure,” Altemus said, but he added that the company expects to see growth in building low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit satellites.

Much of that would come from tapping into Lanteris’ satellite manufacturing capabilities, citing work to produce satellite buses for companies working on the Space Development Agency’s constellations and production of commercial GEO satellites.

“The customers are all excited about the opportunities that the business combination creates,” he said.

Lanteris will also assist other Intuitive Machines projects. Altemus said the company plans to use Lanteris satellites for part of its five-spacecraft lunar data relay network it is developing to support NASA and other customers.