Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology instruments, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 mission (designated Ghost Riders in the Sky) made a soft landing on the Moon at 3:34 am EST yesterday, March 2, 2025. The lander, which touched down near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium –a basin more than 300 miles wide located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s nearside– stabilized in an upright position.

The touchdown marks the first success of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and the Artemis campaign, and marks the first lunar landing attempt for Firefly Aerospace, a private space company based in Texas. Blue Ghost is carrying 10 NASA science instruments, which will operate on the lunar surface for approximately 14 Earth days, equivalent to one lunar day. "The technology and science demonstrations aboard Blue Ghost 1 will strengthen our ability to advance our knowledge and ensure the safety of instruments for future human missions, both in the near and long term", said Janet Petro, acting administrator of the American agency.

Since launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, Blue Ghost has travelled more than 2.8 million miles and transmitted more than 27 GB of data, supporting numerous scientific operations. These include tracking Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals at a record range of 246,000 miles, using the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment payload to demonstrate that the same ground-based positioning systems can be applied on the Moon. Additional experiments have included measuring radiation along the Van Allen Belts with the Radiation-Tolerant Computer System payload, and monitoring magnetic field variations with the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder.

During operations on the lunar surface, the lander will test advanced subsurface drilling technologies by collecting regolith samples, GNSS system capabilities, radiation-hardened computing, and lunar dust mitigation methods. Before concluding operations, teams will attempt to capture images of the lunar sunset and document the behavior of dust at twilight, a phenomenon first observed by US astronaut Eugene Cernan, during the Apollo 17 mission. The lander will then operate for several hours into the lunar night.

Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said: "The successful landing of Blue Ghost has paved the way for commercial exploration in cislunar space, aimed at collecting critical science data that will influence future missions to the Moon and Mars".

Since the moon landing, Firefly has been successfully commanding and communicating with the lander from its Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas. Fun fact: Bue Ghost 1 also has a plaque bearing the names of each Firefly team member on board.