Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander Touches Down On The Moon

A U.S.-developed uncrewed spacecraft has successfully soft-landed on the moon, making Texas-based Firefly Aerospace only the second private-sector company to achieve this milestone, Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland reported for CNN.

The lander was “stable and upright” after landing. I Photo: Firefly Aerospace

Firefly’s 6.6-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the moon’s near side at approximately 2:34 a.m. CT (3:34 a.m. ET) on Sunday.

A wave of private-sector lunar landers has launched this year as part of a convoy of robotic spacecraft that NASA and its partner agencies hope will pave the way for astronauts to return to the moon’s surface later this decade. Issam Ahmed of Agence France-Presse (AFP) also confirmed the successful touchdown.

Success was far from guaranteed. In February 2023, another Texas-based space company, Intuitive Machines, became the first private-sector firm to soft-land a vehicle on the moon.

However, historically, about half of all lunar landing attempts have ended in failure, Joey Roulette of Reuters also reported.

Firefly CEO Jason Kim confirmed that the lander was “stable and upright” after landing. “Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed,” Kim said. “We got some moon dust on our boots.”