Commercial lunar landers: Firefly, Voyager, Blue Origin and Intuitive Machines update progress

Speakers at the Johnson Space Center program described near-term progress among commercial lunar lander developers working with NASA and international partners.

Firefly Aerospace personnel said their Blue Ghost lander is stacked and that engineers are installing electronics and payloads, including a radio astronomy telescope called "Lucy Knight" and a mobility payload (a rover). "Our Blue Ghost mission to lunar lander... the lander is now stacked... we're getting ready to install our electronics in all our payloads," the Firefly representative said during the program.

Voyager Lunar Systems' Griffin 1 was described as an "infrastructure class" lander undergoing mass-properties and environmental testing at JPL in preparation for a South Pole landing that requires precise navigation. A reporting segment said the vehicle will carry up to 10 payloads including the large Escher Lab Flip rover.

Blue Origin representatives described completed thermal vacuum testing and RF compatibility checks and said they expect New Glenn's readiness to determine a launch date for the first Blue Moon Mark 1 serial flight; the program segment gave an estimated target of "Q1 of 2027" for New Glenn's availability. Intuitive Machines staff described their Nova C (IM-3) vehicle, its methane and oxygen tanks and a pending hot-fire test to confirm engine readiness prior to launch.

Each company-level update emphasized integrating lessons from earlier robotic missions, environmental qualification work and preparing payloads that will contribute science and technology demonstrations to future human-return architecture.