Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Successfully Lands on the Moon, Marking a Milestone in Commercial Lunar Exploration

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a successful lunar landing on March 2 at 3:34 a.m. EST near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium. This marks the second private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon and the first successful Moon landing for Firefly Aerospace. The mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis campaign, carrying 10 NASA science and technology instruments to operate on the lunar surface for approximately 14 Earth days. The Blue Ghost mission, launched on January 15 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, traveled over 2.8 million miles and downlinked more than 27 GB of data. The lander is designed to test lunar subsurface drilling technology, regolith sample collection, and lunar dust mitigation methods. It will also capture imagery of the lunar sunset and dust behavior during lunar dusk. NASA has awarded 11 lunar deliveries to five vendors under CLPS, sending over 50 instruments to the Moon with a cumulative contract value of $2.6 billion through 2028. The success of Blue Ghost underscores the growing role of commercial companies in lunar exploration and their contribution to future NASA missions.