Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company, has declared its historic moon landing mission “over” after achieving 100% of its objectives. The four-legged robotic lander, Blue Ghost, spent two weeks operating on the moon’s near-side and successfully deployed several payloads, including a drill to measure soil temperatures.
Blue Ghost sent back over 120 gigabytes of data, equivalent to more than 24,000 songs, during its mission. The lander also acquired the farthest-ever received GPS signal and used a special vacuum to collect and sort lunar dust. Firefly Aerospace received the final signal from Blue Ghost on Sunday, marking the longest commercial operations on the moon to date.
The company’s achievement marks the first fully successful commercial operation on the moon, following several failed attempts by private sector companies. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program aims to establish a fleet of spacecraft developed by the private sector to explore the lunar surface quickly and cheaply.
Firefly Aerospace was awarded a $101.5 million fixed-price contract for this mission, which includes sharing observations with NASA during a news conference scheduled for Tuesday. The company’s chief engineer, Will Coogan, credited the team’s support for their success in achieving 100% of their objectives.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/17/science/blue-ghost-moon-lander-mission-ends/index.html