Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost just made history. Here’s how.
In the early hours of March 2, 2025, the Texas-based company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully touched down on the Moon’s surface. The landing marks a historic achievement in the realm of commercial space flight. Firefly Aerospace’s successful landing positions it as only the second private company to achieve a moon landing, but more importantly, it is the first to complete a wholly successful landing. This accomplishment follows a previous attempt by Intuitive Machines, whose Odysseus lander made a lopsided touchdown last year, losing several onboard instruments.
“Three contact sensors tripped. Engine shutdown confirmed. Power is nominal and the vehicle is charging,” – Firefly Aerospace Mission Control at 3:35 AM on March 2, 2025.
Artist’s Concept: Firefly Aerospace.
The uncrewed spacecraft landed at approximately 3:35 a.m. Eastern Time near Mare Crisium, a prominent lunar basin on the Moon’s Earth-facing side. Upon the successful landing of the Blue Ghost lunar lander, Will Coogan, the chief engineer for the lander, announced to Mission Control, “You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon”, as the room erupted in cheers.
In a statement following the landing, Firefly Aerospace’s CEO expressed pride in the team’s accomplishment, stating, “We are thrilled to have successfully landed Blue Ghost on the lunar surface. This mission represents a monumental achievement for Firefly and the broader commercial space industry.”
The Blue Ghost lander, approximately the size of a compact car, carried ten scientific payloads designed to conduct a variety of experiments during its mission. These instruments aim to study the lunar environment, including its regolith properties, geophysical characteristics, and interactions with solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field.
The mission commenced with a launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, 2025. Blue Ghost embarked on a complex trajectory, completing multiple orbits around Earth and covering approximately 2.8 million miles before reaching the Moon. The lander entered lunar orbit in mid-February and successfully descended to the lunar surface after a month-and-a-half-long journey.
Upon landing, Blue Ghost’s three solar panels deployed provide power to the onboard instruments. The mission is scheduled to operate for a full lunar day, equivalent to about 14 Earth days, before the onset of the frigid lunar night, where temperatures can plummet to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 173 degrees Celsius).
This mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which seeks to stimulate a private lunar market and facilitate routine, cost-effective missions to the Moon. The technology developed in CLPS figures strongly in NASA’s planned Artemis missions to return humans to the moon. Firefly Aerospace secured a $101 million contract under this initiative to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface.
The payloads aboard Blue Ghost include experiments designed to analyze the lunar soil and its subsurface temperatures, as well as instruments to study the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar wind. Notably, Honeybee Robotics, a firm owned by Blue Origin, contributed two instruments: one to study lunar soil and another to analyze subsurface temperatures. Additionally, NASA’s Langley Research Center provided a stereo camera to observe the lunar dust plumes generated during the lander’s descent.
The success of Blue Ghost’s mission underscores the growing role of private companies in lunar exploration. It demonstrates the feasibility of cost-effective lunar missions and contributes valuable data to support future crewed missions to the Moon. As international competition for lunar exploration intensifies, with nations like China and private entities such as Blue Origin actively participating, Firefly Aerospace’s achievement represents a significant step forward in establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
As Blue Ghost begins its scientific operations, the data collected will provide insights into the Moon’s environment, aiding future missions and contributing to our understanding of Earth’s closest celestial neighbor. The mission’s success also paves the way for subsequent lunar endeavors, with Firefly Aerospace planning additional missions in the coming years to further support NASA’s Artemis program and the broader goals of lunar exploration.
