In a major breakthrough for private space exploration, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed on the Moon’s northeastern near side early Sunday, becoming the second private spacecraft to achieve this milestone and the first to land upright.
The golden-hued lander, roughly the size of a hippopotamus, touched down at Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium at 3:34 AM US Eastern Time (0834 GMT) after a weeks-long journey. The moment was met with cheers at Firefly’s mission control in Austin, Texas, where an engineer excitedly declared, “Y’all stuck the landing, we’re on the Moon.”
Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim later confirmed that the spacecraft was stable and upright, a stark contrast to the first private landing last year by Intuitive Machines, which ended with the lander tipping over.
The mission, backed by NASA, is part of an effort to reduce costs and strengthen private industry partnerships under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The lander carries ten scientific instruments, including a lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-resistant computer, and an experiment testing GPS-based navigation on the Moon. These technologies aim to support NASA’s Artemis program, which is working toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface.
Blue Ghost is expected to operate for 14 Earth days, capturing high-definition imagery of a total lunar eclipse on March 14, when Earth will completely block sunlight from reaching the Moon’s surface. The lander will also document a lunar sunset on March 16, gathering data on how dust levitates above the surface due to solar radiation an unexplained phenomenon first observed by Apollo astronauts.
The Moon’s surface is set to receive another visitor soon, as Intuitive Machines prepares for its second lunar landing attempt on March 6. Its IM-2 Athena lander, taller and slimmer than Blue Ghost, is en route to Mons Mouton, the southernmost lunar landing site ever attempted. The mission will deploy three rovers, a drill to search for ice, and a pioneering drone capable of hopping across the Moon’s rugged terrain.
The success of Blue Ghost marks a growing presence of private companies in lunar exploration. Until last year, only five national space agencies the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan had achieved soft lunar landings. Now, with NASA’s $2.6 billion CLPS program, private missions are becoming more frequent.
However, as these missions progress, questions loom over the future of NASA’s Artemis program, which has faced scrutiny over its costs and timelines. Speculation is growing that the US may shift its focus toward Mars exploration, a vision strongly supported by President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
