Good News for Space Stocks: NASA Wants 30 Moon Landings

On Feb. 22, 2024, abstraction institution Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) conducted a mostly palmy landing of an uncrewed spacecraft connected the Moon -- for the archetypal clip successful 50 years . (It was "mostly" palmy due to the fact that the lander made it onto the Moon safely but past toppled implicit connected its side.)

It wasn't agelong earlier different companies, including adjacent Intuitive itself, tried to duplicate and amended the feat. On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ: FLY) successfully enactment its Blue Ghost-1 lander connected the Moon. Four days later, connected March 6, Intuitive's 2nd lander (IM-2) landed connected the Moon.

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Now NASA wants to onshore connected the Moon 30 much times. So, what could each this mean for investors?

New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed the program to quality tract Spaceflight Now earlier this month. Over a astir three-year play opening successful 2027, the abstraction bureau hopes to sponsor 30 lunar lander missions to the Moon, launching and landing supplies for a aboriginal abstraction basal and conducting technological experiments astir erstwhile per month.

The missions volition tally nether NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CPLS) program, which was archetypal announced successful 2019, and nether which NASA hires autarkic contractors to execute services connected its behalf. And fortunate for investors, this gives america a bully thought of which companies mightiness beryllium champion placed to nett from the effort.

Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace were named successful the archetypal batch of abstraction companies allowed to bid connected contracts nether CLPS, arsenic was privately owned Astrobotic -- which conducted its ain (failed) effort astatine a lunar landing successful 2024. Among the different named companies and organizations, the astir salient are astir apt Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and large backstage authorities contractor The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

A fistful of smaller abstraction start-ups -- immoderate of which person already gone retired of concern successful the years since CLPS archetypal spun up -- besides won places wrong the program, but Intuitive, Firefly, Astrobotic, Lockheed, and Draper look the astir apt beneficiaries of NASA's large propulsion to marque lunar landings a regular occurrence starting adjacent year.

To this archetypal list, you tin astir apt adhd SpaceX -- which whitethorn soon besides beryllium a publically traded institution -- and Blue Origin. Both companies are processing lunar landers of their own: "Cargo Human Landing System" for SpaceX and "Blue Moon" for Blue Origin. Indeed, arsenic SpaceNews.com points out, Blue Origin is scheduled to motorboat its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander aboriginal this year. Also flying successful 2026 (if each goes well) could beryllium Astrobotic (with Griffin 1), Firefly (with Blue Ghost 2), and Intuitive (with IM-3).