Masten Space Systems

Masten Space Systems was founded in 2004, in 2009 won the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, and in November 2018 were selected for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.

Masten is developing a lunar vehicle, the XL-1, a spacecraft with 2 payload bays and the capacity to deliver 100kg of payload to the lunar surface. The spacecraft is put on a translunar injection by a larger launch vehicle, and once in lunar orbit, fires 4 main engines to slow down and autonomously descend into a soft touchdown at a predetermined location on the lunar surface. As of December 2018, it is still in development and testing. Masten plans to launch by the end of 2021.