Blue Ghost Achieves Historic Landing on the Moon

Today, March 2, 2025, Firefly wrote an important new chapter in the Moon’s exploration. At 08:34 UTC, the Blue Ghost lunar lander softly touched down on the surface of our satellite, carrying several scientific payloads.

Firefly Aerospace thus became the first private company in history to achieve a fully successful soft-landing on the Moon, and they did it on their first attempt.

First photo captured by Blue Ghost from the Moon's surface. Credits: Firefly Aerospace — *First photo captured by Blue Ghost from the Moon’s surface. Credits: Firefly Aerospace*

“This bold, unstoppable team has proven we’re well equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the Moon, and we won’t stop there. With annual lunar missions, Firefly is paving the way for a lasting lunar presence that will help unlock access to the rest of the solar system for our nation, our partners, and the world.”

— Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace

A thrilling descent phase

Blue Ghost Mission 1 left Earth on January 15 aboard a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, along with the Japanese Hakuto-R lander.

On February 13, following a 4-minute burn of the RCS thrusters and main engine, the spacecraft entered an elliptical orbit around the Moon. The following day, Firefly shared the first stunning images from the lunar orbit.

Yesterday, the flight controllers sent the command for Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) 9 hours ahead of the key engine burn. This morning at 06:49 UTC, the nominal descent trajectory was confirmed, thus beginning a 30-minute coast phase.

At 07:22 UTC, Blue Ghost began the Powered Descent Initiation, firing all engines for 9 minutes. The lander then began an autonomous final descent phase, tracking craters, slopes, and rocks on the surface to select a hazard-free zone inside the designated landing zone.

Finally, at 07:34 UTC, the great news: Blue Ghost completed a successful touchdown on the Moon in Mare Crisium. Nearly 30 minutes later, Firefly shared the first low-quality image captured by the lander of our satellite’s surface.

Some hours later, Blue Ghost sent another great shot, showing Earth on the horizon. Many stunning historic images are expected in the coming days.

Blue Ghost’s shadow seen on the Moon’s surface! We’ll continue to share images and updates throughout our surface operations. #BGM1 pic.twitter.com/iP7fWOSths
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 2, 2025

A mission rich in scientific objectives

Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The lander is carrying 10 payloads for NASA and will perform science and technology demonstrations over the 14-day long mission.

The operations will include subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation experiments.

So far, the mission has already demonstrated the success of the LuGRE payload, a joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, to demonstrate the use of existing Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for positioning, navigation, and timing on the Moon.

In a Goddard Space Flight Center laboratory, navigation experts test the LuGRE payload’s GNSS receiver and low noise amplifier. Credits: NASA — *In a Goddard Space Flight Center laboratory, navigation experts test the LuGRE payload’s GNSS receiver and low-noise amplifier. Credits: NASA*

LuGRE (Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment) carried out signal tracking with GPS and Galileo satellites at a record-breaking distance of 410,00 km, supporting the downlink of more than 27 GB of data.