Firefly Aerospace Achieves First Fully Successful Private Moon Landing

The Texas-based company's Blue Ghost lander touched down upright in Mare Crisium, marking a milestone in commercial lunar exploration.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander became the first private spacecraft to achieve a fully successful soft landing on the Moon on March 2, 2025.
The mission, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, carried 10 scientific instruments to study lunar dust, soil, and environmental conditions.
Blue Ghost landed within 100 meters of its target in Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain, and began transmitting images and data back to Earth, including a photo of a lunar sunrise.
The lander will operate for one lunar day (approximately 14 Earth days), conducting experiments such as subsurface drilling, dust mitigation, and X-ray imaging.
This achievement sets the stage for future private-sector lunar missions and supports NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon later this decade.