A private lunar lander successfully touched down on the moon Sunday to make a special delivery for NASA.
Firefly Aerospace said its unmanned Blue Ghost spaceship landed “on the Moon’s surface in an upright, stable configuration on the company’s first attempt.” It became the first private spaceship ever to do so without crashing or falling over upon landing.
The Blue Ghost lander is carrying equipment for testing for NASA. The experiments include “lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation experiments,” the company said.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA, said Blue Ghost’s work “helps prepare the way for future NASA exploration and long-term human presence to inspire the world for generations to come.”
“We’re sending these payloads by working with American companies – which supports a growing lunar economy,” Fox said.
Blue Ghost traveled 45 days and 2.8 million miles to reach the moon. NASA paid the Texas-based Firefly Aerospace more than $140 million to complete the mission.
“With the hardest part behind us, Firefly looks forward to completing more than 14 days of surface operations, again raising the bar for commercial cislunar capabilities,” said Shea Ferring, Firefly Aerospace’s CTO. “Just through transit to the Moon, Firefly’s mission has already delivered the most science data to date for the NASA CLPS initiative.”