Overview
- Firefly Aerospace signed a commercial payload deal to fly Volta Space Technologies’ LightPort wireless power receiver on its Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander on the lunar far side.
- The demonstration will validate LightPort for Volta’s planned LightGrid, which envisions satellites beaming laser power from lunar orbit to surface receivers.
- With Volta added, the mission includes six payloads from five countries, alongside instruments from NASA, the European Space Agency, the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and Fleet Space Technologies.
- Firefly reports qualification testing of the stacked Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft is well underway, most payloads have been accepted and tested, and flight hardware assembly has begun.
- Elytra will relay communications during the mission and then begin Firefly’s multi-year Ocula imaging service in lunar orbit; Benzinga reported FLY shares were up about 7% after the announcement, and Volta targets orbital power missions in 2028.