The two private lunar landers — Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost (USA), and Resilience, built by the Japanese company ispace — lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida’s Space Coast (USA).
Blue Ghost
- This Blue Ghost flight is Firefly’s first mission to the moon and is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
- The lander is carrying 10 NASA research and technology payloads designed to further the space agency’s understanding of the lunar environment, as it plans to send astronauts back to the moon as a part of the Artemis Program.
Resilience
- Resilience will collect moon dust for analysis, and test potential water and food sources for future crewed missions.
