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Space

These are all of the missions heading to the moon in 2025

From Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander to SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, around a dozen spacecraft teams have their sights on the moon

By Leah Crane

23 December 2024

SpaceX wants to land its Starship rocket on the moon

SpaceX

Around a dozen landers are aiming for touchdown on the lunar surface next year, with the goal of developing the technology necessary to build a permanent human presence there.

This fusillade of launches is part of an ongoing campaign to ramp up exploration of the moon, fuelled in part by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme. This involves funding spacecraft from private companies, which carry a combination of NASA’s own science instruments and payloads from other customers.

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