A private company, Firefly Aerospace from Cedar Park, Texas, is set to make history by landing the first privately-owned spacecraft on the moon in mid-January 2025. The mission, ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’, will send a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Firefly lunar lander, BlueGhost, to the moon for $101 million.
The 45-day trip will allow NASA’s payloads to conduct research in Earth’s orbit before landing on the moon’s surface. On the lunar surface, BlueGhost will spend 14 Earth days conducting research on various aspects of the moon, including heat flow, electric and magnetic fields, and geophysical characteristics.
Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim views the mission as historic, marking the first time a US entity has visited the moon in 52 years. The success of the mission would also make Firefly Aerospace the first private company to successfully land on the moon.
Kim believes that private industry can provide NASA with affordable and responsive technology to enable more frequent trips to the moon. He plans for BlueGhost Mission Two in 2026, which will target the far side of the moon, further expanding research into space and paving the way for a robust lunar economy that could be a gateway to other planets like Mars.
Source: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local