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Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 spacecraft made history by becoming the first private space mission to land on the Moon. In doing so, it positions itself as the leading company in the commercial space race, with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission.
It was on January 15, when with a Space X Falcon 9 rocket, it left Earth, reaching our satellite on March 2, landing in what is known as Mare Crisium. One of its objectives will be to capture images of the lunar eclipse on March 14, in addition to lunar exploration and testing the viability of GPS.
"The lessons learned and scientific demonstrations aboard Blue Ghost 1 will enhance our ability to make scientific discoveries and ensure the safety of instruments on our future space missions," said Janet Petro, NASA's acting administrator. An advance that supports the success of NASA's Artemis program, which will try to bring humans back to the Moon in 2025, for the first time since 1972.
Athena mission, the next to achieve it
But this achievement by Firefly was matched in the same month of March by the private company Intuitive Machines, with its Athena mission. They already tried in 2024 with the IM1 spacecraft, but a module rollover prevented them from succeeding.
NASA announced on its social networks: "Our lunar delivery initiative involves high risk, but has the potential to deliver great rewards. Shortly after landing in a crater near the lunar South Pole, the Athena @Int_Machines lander collected data and announced the anticipated end of the mission at 1:15 am ET (0615 UTC) on March 7."