Successful Moon Landing by Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace has successfully landed on the moon as part of its first attempt. The company, which is collaborating with NASA under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, announced early Sunday morning that its Blue Ghost lander had a soft touchdown on the moon and is upright and communicating with the team. The landing occurred at 3:34 AM ET in the Mare Crisium region. Although Blue Ghost is not the first commercial spacecraft to land on the moon, it is the first to do so successfully, as Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus ended up on its side after a faster-than-planned descent last year.

Post-Landing Operations and Expectations

The Blue Ghost lander and the NASA instruments it is carrying are expected to remain operational for approximately 14 Earth days. Following this period, lunar night will commence. If everything goes according to plan, the lander will capture images leading up to lunar night and a few hours after darkness falls, obtaining high-definition imagery of a total eclipse, lunar sunset, and other moments to document the behavior of levitating lunar dust. Additionally, NASA is testing instruments designed to drill and collect samples from the surface.

Mission Overview and Achievements

Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched on January 15 and reached lunar orbit about a month later. The team has already sent over 27 GB of data back to Earth from its journey. According to Shea Ferring, Firefly’s Chief Technology Officer, "Just through transit to the Moon, Firefly’s mission has already delivered the most science data to date for the NASA CLPS initiative," indicating that the hardest part of the mission is now over. The company shared a photo on X showing the lander’s shadow on the moon’s surface following its successful touchdown and joked, "The lander saw her shadow, 2 more weeks of ops!"