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Firefly Aerospace Achieves Historic Lunar Success
On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace made waves in the realm of space exploration by successfully executing a soft landing on the Moon—marking a significant milestone as the first commercial entity to accomplish such a feat.
Blue Ghost’s Landmark Landing
The innovative Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down at precisely 8:34 AM GMT within an area known as Mare Crisium—a vast basalt plain on the lunar surface.
Image of Mare Crisium captured from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Equipped with shock-absorbing legs to ensure stability at touchdown, the lander maintained its upright position post-landing, in contrast to Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander’s earlier attempt in February 2024 which left it tilted and unable to utilize its full capabilities.
Contributions to NASA’s CLPS Initiative
This successful landing is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Shea Ferring, CTO of Firefly Aerospace remarked: “Our journey through transit alone has yielded unprecedented scientific data for the NASA CLPS initiative. The CLPS program has been integral in our evolution from merely a rocket firm into a holistic provider of launch services and beyond—covering everything from low Earth orbit (LEO) missions to cislunar and future deep-space endeavors.”
Firefly expresses gratitude towards NASA for their confidence in their mission team and anticipates future contributions that will aid upcoming human explorations targeting both the Moon and Mars.
Noteworthy Achievements During Mission
Throughout its impressive voyage lasting over 45 days, Blue Ghost traveled more than 2.8 million miles and transmitted back more than 27 gigabytes of data while facilitating multiple science payload experiments. Among these was groundbreaking signal tracking via Global Navigation Satellite Systems at remarkable distances using the LuGRE payload, along with trials exploring radiation-hardened computing through Van Allen Belts featuring RadPC technology. Additionally, it measured variations in magnetic fields through completing operations with LMS payloads.
this historic event not only highlights advancements made by private aerospace companies but also looks forward toward collaborative achievements paving pathways for future cosmic endeavors.
