The commercial space industry has completely changed the game for how NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the moon. It won’t even be NASA-owned landers to put boots on the moon when that does happen and the robotic missions ahead of humans are also commercial. NASA is just along for the ride.

Two private American companies are launching moon landers later this year from Florida...kicking off a grand campaign to better understand our nearest neighbor.

This week we’ll meet the first of two robots laying the groundwork for astronauts to return to the moon. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic will launch its Peregrine moon lander with ULA later this year.  Astrobotic CEO John Thornton joins Space Curious to explain how it plans to land its first robot on the moon and what it's carrying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices