With its Blue Ghost lunar module, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has just achieved what no other private company, anywhere in the world, has ever accomplished: successfully landing on the surface of the moon.
Having launched in January, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at Mare Crisium, in the vicinity of a mountain called Mons Latreille, at 3:34 am Eastern Time on Sunday March 2. NASA reports that the Blue Ghost lander is in a stable, vertical position.
“This incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and US companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all,” Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in a statement on March 2. “We have already learned many lessons, and the technology and science demonstrations aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 Mission will enhance our ability to not only discover more science but also to ensure the safety of the instruments on our spacecraft for future human exploration, both near and long term.”
Blue Ghost is not the first privately led mission to reach the lunar surface. That honor goes to Intuitive Machines, another Texas-based company, which attempted to land on the moon in February 2024; however, its module fell onto its side on the surface and ceased to be operational. (Intuitive Machines will get another chance on March 6, with its Athena lunar module, which launched last month.) Other companies have also tried, but their spacecraft ended up crashing.
Firefly’s lander still has plenty of work ahead of it. The Blue Ghost module is carrying 10 science and technology instruments for NASA, which will operate on the surface for one lunar day, the equivalent of 14 days on Earth. As part of the NASA’s Artemis program, which will return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, Blue Ghost’s mission aims to learn more about the lunar environment, to support astronauts in future explorations of the moon and Mars. Moments after touchdown, the module captured its first images, which were shared by NASA and Firefly on their official accounts.
“The science and technology we send to the moon now helps prepare the way for future NASA exploration and long-term human presence,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement on Sunday. “We are sending these payloads in partnership with US companies, which supports a growing lunar economy.”
While this is a small step for the Artemis program, it’s a big step for Firefly, which is operating as a trusted provider under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. CLPS, which commenced in 2018, gives money to private companies to build landers that can carry NASA instruments and other equipment to the lunar surface ahead of the planned return of humans later this decade. By demonstrating that it has the capabilities to successfully transport a shipment of instruments, Firefly Aerospace currently has the lead among those funded by the program.
“On behalf of our entire team, I want to thank NASA for entrusting Firefly as their lunar delivery provider,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, in a statement on Sunday. “Blue Ghost’s successful Moon landing has laid the groundwork for the future of commercial exploration across cislunar space. We’re now looking forward to more than 14 days of surface operations to unlock even more science data that will have a substantial impact on future missions to the moon and Mars.”
The Blue Ghost lunar module lifted off on January 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and traveled nearly 5 million kilometers to reach its destination, at a cost of $2.6 billion. Among the instruments it is carrying are a lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-tolerant computer, and an experiment that tests the feasibility of using GPS to navigate the moon. It is also expected to capture high-definition images of the March 14 lunar eclipse.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.