Austin, Texas – A privately built spacecraft has made history by successfully landing on the moon, a milestone achieved by only one other company in spaceflight history. The robotic lander, known as Blue Ghost, completed its daring descent after spending approximately two weeks in orbit around the moon. Developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, the spacecraft touched down at approximately 3:36 a.m. ET to the cheers of the control room staff and a crowd gathered outside the Firefly headquarters in Austin, Texas.
The successful landing of Blue Ghost marks the second time a privately built vehicle has landed on the moon. Previously, in February 2024, another Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines, made headlines with its Odysseus lander pulling off a nail-biting touchdown near the moon’s south pole. In capturing a selfie with Earth, Blue Ghost has set the stage for a new era of lunar exploration.
The landing of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost is just the beginning of a series of robotic missions to the moon in 2025. Intuitive Machines recently launched its second lander into space with a targeted moon landing date of around March 6. Additionally, a lander and tiny rover developed by Japanese company ispace are on track to arrive at the moon in late May or early June, having taken a longer and less energy-intensive path than Blue Ghost.
Blue Ghost is set to touch down in a 350-mile-wide basin on the near side of the moon, an area believed to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact, according to NASA. The spacecraft has already provided stunning footage of the far side of the moon, capturing the pockmarked, crater-laden landscape as it orbited roughly 62 miles above the surface. With a mission duration of approximately two weeks, Blue Ghost aims to gather valuable data on the lunar surface.
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, a public-private partnership with more than a dozen U.S. companies aimed at delivering NASA science experiments, technology, and other cargo to the moon. Awarded approximately $101.5 million by NASA, Firefly Aerospace is playing a crucial role in advancing our understanding of the moon’s south polar region, which is key to the agency’s Artemis program and its goal of returning humans to the moon.