NASA said in a report published on 4 August 2026 that commercial partners Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Voyager Lunar Systems are working toward delivering landers by 2028 to support its Moon Base, a planned outpost near the lunar South Pole. The agency said Phase I of the architecture plan, running from then through 2029, includes more than twenty robotic landings under the CLPS initiative.

Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lander completed a thermal-vacuum test at Johnson Space Center in Houston and communications checkouts, with cryogenic propellant loading among the final tests before launch integration. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 2, a 22-foot-tall stacked system with the Elytra orbital spacecraft, is planned to be the first American landing on the Moon's far side.

Intuitive Machines' IM-3 mission, carrying its Nova-C lander Trinity and the Altus-1 relay satellite, was undergoing wiring tests, with engine integration and hot fire tests described as coming in the following weeks. Voyager's Griffin-1 lander was being tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; NASA said it plans to launch in late 2026. NASA also said it is working with Northrop Grumman on three technology demonstration payloads.