Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander successfully touched down on the Moon's surface at 0830 UTC on March 2, following its engines' "descent orbit insertion burn." The maneuver put the car-sized lander, which had been circling the moon from about 100 kilometers up, on course for the lunar surface; making it the second private spacecraft to ever soft-land on the moon.
"We're on the moon!" Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during the landing webcast. "I'm sorry — I'm just so excited right now."
This marks a significant milestone as the first commercial company to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The lander coasted for about 50 minutes, then began firing its thrusters again to reduce its orbital velocity and position itself above its targeted landing site — an area within Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"), a volcanic basin on the moon's near side.
Nine minutes later, Blue Ghost shut off its main engine, entering the "terminal guidance" phase of the touchdown process. The lander continued to fire its small reaction control system thrusters to fine-tune its descent, heading for a relatively flat, boulder-free stretch of lunar ground that Blue Ghost autonomously selected as a safe landing spot.
Bliue Ghost touched down in Mare Crisium, near an ancient volcanic vent called Mons Latreille. It is in an upright, stable position and is currently communicating with Firefly's Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas.
"Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed," Firefly CEO Jason Kim said during the landing webcast. "We've got some moon dust on our boots!"
Blue Ghost, which is about 3 meters tall by 3.5 m wide, is Firefly's first-ever moon lander. The company drew inspiration from a variety of sources to build the vehicle, including the Israeli group behind the Beresheet lander, said Ray Allensworth, Firefly's spacecraft program director.
Beresheet made it to lunar orbit successfully but crashed during its touchdown try in April 2019.
Blue Ghost 1 carried 10 NASA scientific instruments and technology demonstrations, including equipment for lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation experiments.
Over the next 14 days, equivalent to a full lunar day, Blue Ghost will conduct various scientific and technological demonstrations.
On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the Moon’s horizon.
Blue Ghost launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15 along with another private lunar lander — Resilience, which is built and operated by Tokyo-based company ispace.
This successful landing represents a significant step forward in commercial lunar exploration and sets the stage for future missions to the Moon and beyond.
The first-ever private moon landing occurred just over a year ago; Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft pulled off the feat in February 2024.
