Private lander ‘Blue Ghost’ lands safely on the moon, carrying NASA experiments

SPACE – Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander successfully touched down on the moon, marking the second private company to achieve a soft lunar landing. The lander, carrying NASA-funded experiments, landed on the near side of the moon, confirming its arrival from mission control in Texas. The mission is part of NASA’s effort to gather data ahead of future astronaut missions.

Blue Ghost carries instruments to study lunar soil and subsurface temperatures, with Honeybee Robotics and NASA’s Langley Research Center conducting key experiments. One focus is analyzing how lunar dust disperses during landings, crucial for future missions. Firefly CEO Jason Kim praised the mission’s precision and stability post-landing. The mission is funded through a $101 million NASA contract, aligning with the agency’s goal of low-cost lunar exploration.

This follows Intuitive Machines’ moon landing last year and adds to the five nations that have achieved soft landings: the Soviet Union, the U.S., China, India, and Japan. Meanwhile, China is advancing its lunar program, planning a crewed moon landing by 2030, while Japan and India continue their lunar exploration efforts.