From Popular Mechanics:ÌýNASA's support of private spaceflight has helped spur competition between companies like SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin, and that rocket race has driven launch costs to historic lows. The next step will give industry a chance to take the reins a little farther from home by putting the first private lander on the surface of the moon.
This move became crystal clear last week when NASA confirmed the cancellation of Resource Prospector, a lunar rover program in the planning stages, and announced a new request for private industry to build lunar landers.