the year 2024 promises to be a busy one for american moon landings, all under a new partnership between nasa and the space industry.a first attempt under the commercial lunar payload services (clps) initiative ended in disappointing failure last month, but a second, led by houston-based intuitive machines, will attempt on thursday to return the united states to moon for the first time in five decades.nasa's thinking behind clps is to delegate the delivery of its science hardware to the private sector, reducing costs to taxpayers as it prepares to return astronauts to the surface under the flagship artemis program later this decade.established in 2018, clps operates on the principle of purchasing services from commercial partners, rather than buying their hardware.joel kearns, a senior nasa official involved with clps, said it would allow the agency to be more cost effective and do more frequent trips