Blue Ghost Represents the First Completely Successful Mission of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program

Image: Blue Ghost’s shadow on the Moon, courtesy Firefly Aerospace.

The National Space Society congratulates Firefly Aerospace for the successful lunar landing of their Blue Ghost robotic spacecraft. Blue Ghost launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 15, 2024, along with another lunar lander from Japanese company ispace that will attempt a landing in May. After an approximately six-week cruise to the Moon the spacecraft landed in the morning hours of March 2, setting down in Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) region. Touchdown was confirmed shortly after 3:34 a.m. Eastern Time.

“The NSS applauds the first fully successful commercial lunar landing and congratulates the Firefly Blue Ghost team on a job well done,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO/SVP. “This is the dawn of a new era in which any company or institution can access the lunar surface for commercial and scientific purposes for costs in the $100 million range for an entire launch and much less for a rideshare. Let the rockets roar and a new era of commerce and exploration on the Moon begin!”

NASA awarded the company a $93 million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract in 2021. Firefly follows Intuitive Machines’ partially successful landing of its Nova-C lander in February, 2024 (that spacecraft tipped over during landing), which was also a CLPS participant.

Onboard Blue Ghost are ten NASA-sponsored instruments that include a lunar retroreflector for precision distance measurements of the Moon’s distance from Earth, a regolith adherence characterization device to test lunar soil characteristics, a radiation-tolerant computer, and thermal exploration probes. The lander will operate for one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, until it no longer receives power from its solar panels. As lunar night approaches, scientists anticipate capturing imagery that will illuminate the behavior of lunar dust suspended above the Moon due to influence from the setting sun. This phenomenon was first documented during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

“Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed,” said Firefly CEO Jason Kim during the live landing webcast. “We’ve got some Moon dust on our boots!” The 6.6 feet (3 meter) tall by 11.5 feet (3.5 m) wide lander soon sent back spectacular images, including one showing its shadow on the nearby lunar surface with the Earth prominent in the sky.

Among other robotic craft headed toward the Moon this year, Intuitive Machines launched its second lander, named Athena, on February 26, which should land on March 6.

Images below: Blue Ghost view of Earth and view over the Moon, courtesy Firefly Aerospace.