section_path: Mission
section_name: Mission
paragraph_text: Mission
  
  On February 4, 2021, NASA awarded Firefly a contract worth US$93.3 million to deliver a suite of ten science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The award was part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, in which NASA is securing the service of commercial partners to quickly land science and technology payloads on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
  
  On May 20, 2021, Firefly Aerospace announced its selection of SpaceX 's Falcon 9 Block 5 as the launch vehicle for the inaugural Blue Ghost lunar lander mission. This decision was made due to the Falcon 9's performance and payload capacity, which Firefly's Alpha rocket could not provide. The company indicated that its future Medium Launch Vehicle would support subsequent Blue Ghost missions.
  
  Development milestones for the Blue Ghost lander progressed steadily over the following years. On April 26, 2022, Firefly completed the Integration Readiness Review for the lander, with a tentative launch date set for 2024. In November 2023, Firefly refined the schedule, specifying a launch window between the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
  
  By May 2024, the Nammo UK LEROS 4-ET engines for Blue Ghost were completed, and their integration into the lander was confirmed in June. Firefly announced that preparations were proceeding as planned, with the company reaffirming a Q4 2024 launch target in July. Environmental testing of the lander commenced in August at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ensuring the spacecraft's readiness for the rigors of spaceflight.
  
  In November 2024, Firefly Aerospace formally announced that the Blue Ghost lander was fully prepared for launch, setting a mid-January 2025 launch date. Payload encapsulation was completed on January 10, marking one of the final steps in the pre-launch sequence. On January 15, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at 06:11:39 UTC (1:11:39 a.m. EST, local time at the launch site) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. The mission also included Hakuto-R Mission 2 as a co-manifested payload.
  
  The spacecraft orbited Earth for 25 days, before performing a Trans-lunar injection maneuver, followed four days later by a Lunar orbit insertion burn to capture into lunar orbit. After a further 16 day days in lunar orbit, on March 2, 2025, at 2:34 a.m. CST, the spacecraft performed a powered descent and successfully landed on the lunar surface, northwest of Mons Latreille. Firefly Aerospace thus became the first commercial company to execute a fully successful soft-landing of a spacecraft on the Moon. As intended, the mission lasted approximately 14 Earth days, one lunar day, until the lunar sunset brings temperatures as low as −173 °C (−280 °F). Three solar panels powered the lander's research instruments and Spacecraft bus during that time.