THE NEW SPACE RACE: Astrobotic purchases Falcon Heavy for third lunar lander mission.

Lunar lander developer Astrobotic announced April 25 it will launch a third mission to the moon in 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

Astrobotic said the mission, which currently is not part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program of commercial lunar landers, will be able to carry hundreds of kilograms of customer payloads to a site near the south pole of the moon.

“The NASA Artemis program is a major effort to establish a U.S. presence at the lunar south pole, and at the same time, international customers are also lining up,” John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said in a statement announcing its selection of Falon Heavy for the unnamed mission. “With all this rising interest, we felt now is the time to announce our next commercial mission to deliver hundreds of kilograms of payload to the lunar south pole.”

The company said that, in addition to carrying payloads to the lunar surface on the lander, it will offer satellite deployments for customers seeking to place spacecraft into cislunar space.

Good.