NASA Updates

NASA requests information on commercial lunar missions

WASHINGTON — Six months after seeking information about instruments it could fly to the moon, NASA has issued a request for information for commercial systems that could transport payloads there.

The May 1 request for information (RFI) seeks details from U.S. companies about their present and planned capabilities to deliver “instruments, experiments, or other payloads” to the surface of the moon in order to meet NASA’s exploration, science and technology development needs.

“NASA is interested in assessing the availability of payload transit and delivery services from Earth to the lunar surface as early as fiscal year 2018 and through the next decade,” the RFI states. “This approach offers NASA the potential to simultaneously address critical strategic objectives related to exploration, science, and technology demonstration using commercially provided domestic space services and hardware.”