Lunar infrastructure development is no longer hypothetical. A commercial lander operated by an American startup successfully reached the Moon in March 2025. NASA’s Artemis II crew completed a 10-day flight around the Moon and returned safely to Earth in April 2026. The Artemis Accords, the diplomatic framework for international cooperation on lunar exploration, now have 66 signatory nations.
What is being built on and around the Moon is no longer a single national program. Lunar infrastructure now includes a distributed system of contracted commercial landers, public-private crewed missions, international partner contributions, and a regulatory framework that did not exist five years ago. The pace of activity has shifted from one or two milestones per decade to multiple landings per year.
For people tracking how this transition is happening, the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) 2026 brings them all into the same building. The industry, the agencies, and the international community sit at the same tables.
What Lunar Infrastructure Actually Means
Lunar infrastructure refers to the persistent capabilities required for sustained human and robotic activity on and around the Moon. This includes launch and landing systems, surface habitats, power generation and storage, communications relays, navigation networks, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) plants, and the supply chains that move hardware and people between Earth and lunar destinations.
The model under which this infrastructure is being built has shifted significantly from the Apollo era. Apollo was a single-customer, single-program effort owned end-to-end by NASA and its prime contractors. The current model is layered. NASA defines mission requirements and serves as anchor customer. Commercial companies design, build, and operate the hardware under fixed-price contracts. International partner agencies contribute specific elements such as service modules, science instruments, or astronaut seats. The result of this industry collaboration is a more distributed system that NASA hopes will be faster, cheaper, and more resilient than a single program of record.
Two NASA initiatives anchor this model: the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program for robotic delivery, and the Human Landing System (HLS) program for crewed surface access.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services and the Robotic Pathfinders
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is NASA’s mechanism for buying robotic delivery services to the lunar surface. NASA defines the payloads it wants delivered. Commercial vendors bid on end-to-end mission contracts that include payload integration, launch, and landing. The program has a cumulative contract ceiling of $2.6 billion through 2028.
The early CLPS missions have been a mix of partial successes and outright failures, which NASA expected. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One launched in January 2024 but failed in transit due to a propellant leak and never reached the Moon. Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Odysseus mission landed on the lunar south polar region in February 2024 but tipped over on touchdown. Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Athena mission in March 2025 also landed sideways near the south pole.
The first fully successful CLPS landing came on March 2, 2025. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down upright at Mare Crisium and operated through a full lunar day. It was the first fully successful commercial soft landing on the Moon and the first US lunar landing of any kind since Apollo 17 in 1972. Firefly’s contract value for that mission was $93.3 million.
Several CLPS missions are scheduled or in progress through 2026 and beyond. Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 mission is targeting a landing at the Reiner Gamma magnetic anomaly. Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 is scheduled to land on the lunar far side, the first US far-side landing attempt. The same mission will also deliver a European Space Agency communications relay satellite into lunar orbit. Draper Laboratory, partnering with ispace’s US division, is scheduled to land its APEX 1.0 lander at Schrödinger Basin on the far side. Astrobotic is preparing its larger Griffin lander for a south pole mission. Blue Origin is developing its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface.
CLPS is doing more than delivering science instruments. Multiple American companies now maintain active lunar lander programs and compete for follow-on contracts, building a commercial lunar infrastructure industry where one did not exist five years ago.
Artemis II and the Crewed Return
While the robotic missions develop the surface delivery industry, NASA’s Artemis program is rebuilding the crewed lunar capability. Artemis I flew uncrewed in November 2022, completing a six-day mission that sent the Orion spacecraft into a polar distant retrograde lunar orbit before splashdown in the Pacific.
Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026 from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The crew was NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They completed an approximately 10-day flight that took them on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. The Orion capsule, named Integrity, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on April 10. The mission was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
The Artemis program has been substantially restructured since its original architecture. The Lunar Gateway, a small space station originally planned to orbit the Moon as a staging point for surface missions, was cancelled in March 2026. Artemis III was originally planned as the first crewed lunar landing of the program. It has since been redesignated as a crewed Earth-orbit mission to test the commercial Human Landing Systems with one or both of the contracted landers in space. Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028, is now planned as the first crewed lunar landing of the Artemis program.
Human Landing Systems and the Commercial Crewed Architecture
The Human Landing System program is the crewed counterpart to CLPS within the broader lunar infrastructure architecture. NASA contracts commercial providers to develop the landers that will carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back. Two companies hold active HLS contracts.
SpaceX is developing the Starship HLS, a variant of its Starship vehicle adapted for lunar landings. The vehicle launches from Earth on a Super Heavy booster and refuels in low Earth orbit through multiple tanker flights before traveling to the Moon for surface operations.
Blue Origin is developing the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, a larger version of the company’s Mark 1 cargo lander. The Mark 2 is designed for crewed surface missions and is currently scheduled to support Artemis V.
Both contracts represent the same procurement model NASA used for Commercial Crew with the ISS. NASA defines the requirements, commercial providers retain ownership of their vehicles, and the agency pays for services rather than building the hardware itself.
International Collaboration and the Artemis Accords
The international dimension of lunar infrastructure is governed by the Artemis Accords. The Accords are a set of non-binding principles for civil space exploration, co-led by NASA and the US Department of State. The Accords were established in October 2020 with eight founding signatories: Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
As of May 2026, 66 nations have signed the Accords, with Ireland becoming the most recent signatory. The Accords address transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, registration of space objects, scientific data sharing, preservation of outer space heritage, the use of space resources, deconfliction of activities, and orbital debris mitigation. They are designed to reinforce and operationalize the principles of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty rather than replace it.
International contributions to the Artemis program go well beyond the Accords. The European Service Module that powers the Orion spacecraft is built by Airbus Defence and Space under a European Space Agency contract. The Canadian Space Agency provides the Canadarm3 robotic arm originally developed for Lunar Gateway and contributed astronaut Jeremy Hansen to the Artemis II crew. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is contributing pressurized lunar rover technology in partnership with Toyota. Italian Space Agency contributions include habitat modules and surface assets.
Russia and China are not part of the Artemis Accords framework. China has criticized the Accords as a US-led structure outside United Nations processes, and US legislation generally prohibits NASA bilateral cooperation with Chinese entities. China is pursuing its own lunar program, including the Chang’e 7 mission to the south pole and a planned International Lunar Research Station with Russia and other partner countries.
Why the Collaboration Model Matters
The same procurement framework now anchors NASA’s other major programs beyond lunar exploration. It is being used for Commercial LEO Destinations to replace the International Space Station, for private astronaut missions to the ISS, and for emerging programs in lunar communications and navigation.
The model is not without risk. Commercial vendors can fail in transit, like Astrobotic’s Peregrine, or land off-nominal, like both Intuitive Machines missions. Schedule slips have been routine. The Artemis program’s own timeline has shifted multiple times since 2017. International partners can change priorities, as happened when the Canadian Space Agency ended funding for a Blue Ghost rover payload in March 2026.
What the industry collaboration model offers in exchange is parallel development across multiple companies, fixed-price contracting that contains cost growth, and the ability to scale activity without scaling NASA’s internal workforce. Whether that exchange produces a sustainable lunar infrastructure on the timelines NASA has projected is the central operational question of the next decade.
Where the Conversation Continues: ISDC 2026
The lunar infrastructure conversation cuts across several tracks at ISDC. The Moon Symposium track addresses the science, engineering, and operations of lunar exploration directly. The Many Roads to Space track examines the expanding field of commercial providers and customers driving the industry. The Space Business track addresses the commercial models that make these contracts financially sustainable. The Space Policy track engages with the regulatory and international frameworks that govern how lunar activity actually happens.
ISDC 2026 takes place June 4 to 7 at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, hosted by the National Space Society. Featured speakers include Apollo 17 lunar module pilot Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the last living person to have walked on the Moon; Apollo Flight Director Gerry Griffin, who led mission control for Apollo 12, 15, and 17; Aarti Holla-Maini, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs; and Michael López-Alegría, Chief Astronaut at Axiom Space. The conference takes place in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, near the federal agencies and congressional offices where lunar policy is actively being written.
👉 Explore the ISDC 2026 program and sessions
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the contract values for the Human Landing System program?
NASA has awarded two HLS contracts. SpaceX received an initial $2.89 billion contract in April 2021 to develop the Starship HLS for Artemis III, plus a $1.15 billion modification in November 2022 to evolve the design for Artemis IV. Blue Origin received a $3.4 billion contract in May 2023 to develop the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander for Artemis V, scheduled for late 2028. Both are firm-fixed-price contracts.
How far did Artemis II actually travel?
The Artemis II crew flew 695,081 total miles between launch and splashdown. The Orion spacecraft passed within 4,070 miles of the lunar surface at closest approach during the April 6, 2026 lunar flyby. Maximum distance from Earth reached 252,760 miles, surpassing the previous human distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by 4,105 miles. The mission flew a free-return trajectory that swung around the far side of the Moon without entering lunar orbit.
What was the Lunar Gateway and why was it cancelled?
Lunar Gateway was a small space station designed to operate in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon. It was intended to serve as both a research platform and a transfer station where astronauts would dock with Orion, board the lunar lander, and descend to the surface. NASA announced on March 24, 2026 that it would pause Gateway in its current form and redirect roughly $20 billion over seven years toward a lunar surface base instead. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman cited program simplification, faster cadence, and competition with China’s lunar program as the drivers. NASA plans to repurpose Gateway hardware already built, including the Power and Propulsion Element built by Maxar and the HALO module by Northrop Grumman.
How do CLPS contract values compare across vendors?
Individual CLPS task orders have ranged from approximately $47 million for Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission to over $300 million for Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One after contract increases. Firefly Aerospace’s first Blue Ghost mission was contracted at $93.3 million; the second Blue Ghost contract was awarded at $112 million. Intuitive Machines’ four awarded missions range from $47 million to $118 million each. The contract structure is indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, allowing NASA to add task orders within the $2.6 billion ceiling as new payloads need delivery.
How do the Artemis Accords differ from the Outer Space Treaty?
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is a binding international treaty ratified by more than 115 countries, including all major spacefaring nations. It establishes high-level principles such as free access for all nations, prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and state responsibility for activities in space. The Artemis Accords are non-binding political commitments designed to operationalize Outer Space Treaty principles for modern lunar and deep-space activity. They cover areas the original treaty did not anticipate, including commercial resource extraction, deconfliction of overlapping mission operations, and the preservation of historic sites such as Apollo landing locations. The Accords reinforce the Outer Space Treaty rather than replace it.
Which countries have not signed the Artemis Accords?
China and Russia are the most prominent non-signatories. China has been formally excluded from NASA bilateral cooperation by the 2011 Wolf Amendment in US legislation. Russia has criticized the Accords as a US-led framework operating outside United Nations processes. Both countries are partners in the planned International Lunar Research Station, a separate program. Several major spacefaring nations joined the Accords in stages: France signed in June 2022, India signed in June 2023, and Germany signed in September 2023. As of May 2026, Ireland is the most recent signatory, bringing the total to 66 nations.