Blue Ghost lunar lander making its approach.
Credit: Firefly Aerospace.
Early morning, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander gently touched down on the Moon, in an area known as Mare Crisium, at 9.34am CET on Sunday, March 2.
It’s a big deal as the second US private company to pull a successful lunar landing off. Launched on January 15 from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the car-sized lander carried 10 NASA experiments to help study the Moon for future human trips. After circling the Moon for two weeks, Blue Ghost landed by itself near an old volcano spot. It’s packed with some of the most cutting edge technology, like a drill, a sturdy computer, and a lunar GPS and will be running experiments with Moon dust and rocks, as well as heat and radiation studies for two weeks. It is also snapping some spectacular lunar images of Earth and the Moon’s dark side on the way.
Unlike the last private lander that fell over when on the surface, Blue Ghost is standing tall, impressing everyone. ‘This is huge for space companies,’ said Firefly’s boss, Jason Kim. NASA’s Janet Petro agreed, saying it’s a step closer to regular Moon visits. The lander will run on solar power until the Moon’s super-cold night shuts it down, but the info it gathers will help future moon missions and astronauts in the near future.
With other companies like Japan’s iSpace gearing up for their Moon shots, Blue Ghost shows how private teams are making space a lot more exciting and closer to home for all of us.
Firefly Aerospace is a Texas-based private space company founded in 2017 by engineer Tom Markusic. It aims to make space exploration affordable and accessible, focusing on small-to-medium rockets and lunar landers. After early setbacks, including a 2017 bankruptcy, it relaunched with new investors. Firefly’s Alpha rocket first reached orbit in 2022, and its Blue Ghost lander hit the Moon in 2025, delivering NASA payloads. With a team of ex-NASA and SpaceX talent, Firefly is all about low-cost launches and supporting the growing commercial space scene, competing with big names like SpaceX.
