What To Know About The NASA-funded Commercial Moon Fleet

NASA's thinking behind CLPS is to delegate the delivery of its lunar science hardware to the private sector, reducing costs to taxpayers as it prepares to return astronauts to the Moon under the flagship Artemis program later this decade (Credit: AFP)

The year 2024 promises to be a busy one for American Moon landings, all under a new partnership between NASA and the space industry.

A first attempt under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative ended in disappointing failure last month, but a second, led by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will attempt on Thursday to return the United States to Moon for the first time in five decades.