Astronomy Cast Ep. 759: The Commercial Space Program By Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Streamed live on Jun 9, 2025. Humanity has turned its focus back to the Moon, sending a fleet of spacecraft to the lunar surface. Some are run by the government, but there’s a whole new group of commercial landers bearing instruments to the lunar surface. Is this the future of lunar exploration? Space used to be a place occupied by government-funded and military missions, but today, we're seeing the rise... and fall (somersault, crash, and explosion) of missions with commercial design and funding. Let's talk about how this is good, bad, and maybe just too soon.   SUPPORTED BY YOU This Episode is made possible thanks to our Patrons on Patreon. Join at the Galaxy Group level or higher to be listed in our YouTube videos.  Thanks to: BogieNet, Stephen Vei, Jeanette Wink, Siggi Kemmler, Andrew Poelstra, Brian Cagle, David Truog, Ed, David, Gerhard Schwarzer, Sergio Sancevero, Sergey Manouilov, Burry Gowen, David Rossetter, Michael Purcell, Jason Kwong