Firefly Aerospace has completed environmental testing of its Blue Ghost lunar lander at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lander is now ready to be shipped to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a launch scheduled for mid-January 2025. The mission, known as “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” will carry 10 NASA payloads to the moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The lander will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A during a six-day window. Blue Ghost will take 45 days to reach the moon, where it will land in Mare Crisium, a large basalt plain.
Firefly readies Blue Ghost for launch
The lander will operate for one lunar day (about 14 Earth days) before the lunar night sets in, depleting its solar power source. It will continue to operate for a few hours into the night, capturing images of the lunar sunset and collecting data on the behavior of the moon’s surface during dusk. The payloads on board Blue Ghost include equipment for precise Earth-moon distance measurements, a lunar dust vacuum sampler, and a camera to study the interaction between the lander’s exhaust plumes and the lunar surface during landing.
Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim expressed confidence in the team’s ability to successfully land on the moon, stating, “Blue Ghost aced environmental testing and proved the lander is performing 100% as expected, which is a testament to the incredible Firefly team. While we know there will be more challenges ahead, I’m confident this team has what it takes to softly touch down on the lunar surface and nail this mission.”
NASA is increasingly partnering with commercial companies through the CLPS program to deliver scientific payloads to the moon more frequently and cost-effectively. These missions aim to explore and study the moon, paving the way for future manned missions.
April Isaacs is a news contributor for DevX.com She is long-term, self-proclaimed nerd. She loves all things tech and computers and still has her first Dreamcast system. It is lovingly named Joni, after Joni Mitchell.
