Firefly Aerospace’s First Lunar Mission to the Moon

Ms. Ray Allensworth, the Spacecraft Program Director at Firefly Aerospace, stands with Blue Ghost (photo credit: Ray Allensworth).

Firefly Aerospace, a private aerospace company based in Texas, has completed its first lunar mission, marking a significant development in space exploration. In partnership with NASA, Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, 2025 and after a 45-day journey, it landed in Mare Crisium, a basin on the moon near Mons Latreille, on March 2, 2025.

“‘Mare’ is a special type of place on the Moon,” explained Ms. Ray Allensworth, Spacecraft Program Director at Firefly Aerospace, during a virtual interview. “It is generally covered in fine dust, and it doesn't have as many big boulders or rocks as other places. That’s why we chose Mare Crisium as our destination.”

Blue Ghost Mission 1’s Payloads

Blue Ghost is a lunar lander designed by Firefly Aerospace. The main goal of the mission is to deliver 10 NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or science and technology instruments, to the Moon. After landing on Mare Crisium, Blue Ghost operated and delivered the payloads for a lunar day. A lunar day is equivalent to 14 Earth days.

“Firefly Aerospace designed and built the launch vehicle for this mission,” Ms. Allensworth shared. “NASA gave us tools to deliver, and we are acting as an Uber for the Moon.”

One of the payloads aboard Blue Ghost is Lister, a drill located on the bottom of the lander. It can measure the temperature of the surface of the Moon.

While in lunar orbit, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured an image of the Moon’s south pole on the far left (Copyright/credit: Firefly Aerospace).

 “Success for this mission is to deliver all the payloads and get as much data possible along the way,” said Ms. Allensworth. On board, “Ghost Riders in the Sky” are payloads from other companies and countries. They include one of the first-ever European payloads, Italian Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE).

Notable Achievements

There are also many cameras attached to the spacecraft. They captured pictures of the Moon’s surface and the first HD imagery of a lunar sunset. Additionally, the mission marked the first time in history a commercial company was able to observe a total solar eclipse while actively operating on the Moon.

Blue Ghost completed more than 14 days of surface operations and is the longest commercial operations on the Moon to date.