Four Commercial Moon Base Landers Clear Testing Milestones Simultaneously
NASA announced on August 4, 2026 that four separate commercial lunar lander programs reached major testing milestones around the same time as part of the Moon Base cargo delivery architecture. Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lander 'Endurance' completed thermal-vacuum assessment and communications checkouts at Johnson Space Center. Firefly Aerospace completed stacking its Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander atop the Elytra orbital spacecraft and demonstrated an autonomous landing sequence. Intuitive Machines completed long-range thermal-vacuum testing of its IM-3 Nova-C lander at Marshall Space Flight Center. Voyager Technologies completed mass-properties testing of its Griffin-1 lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, targeting a late-2026 delivery — the other three landers target 2028. NASA said Phase I of the Moon Base architecture, running through 2029, includes more than twenty robotic landings.
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- T1 NASA — NASA Provides Updates on Moon Base Cargo Landers, Tech Demonstrations Official western
- T2 Tech Times — NASA Moon Base 2026: Four Commercial Landers Clear Final Test Gates Simultaneously Major western
- T2 Starlust — NASA Moon Base Update: Major progress revealed on Blue Origin, Firefly, and other landers Major western