Blue Ghost Lander to Return to the Moon With Two Rovers, Three Instruments

Firefly Aerospace has been awarded its fourth lunar contract, with NASA handing over $177 million for an upcoming mission to the moon’s south pole. It will utilize the company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander carrying five payloads as a part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

Firefly’s Elytra Dark transfer vehicle will insert the Blue Ghost lander into lunar orbit and then remain in space for more than five years to provide comms support for both this and future missions. Once on the surface, Blue Ghost will operate for 12 days, offering power, data, and communications to its onboard payloads.

Among them are two rovers: MoonRanger, developed in the US, and another from the Canadian Space Agency. The other three payloads are scientific instruments: a Laser Ablation Ionization Mass Spectrometer (LIMS), a Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), and the SCALPSS stereo camera system for studying lunar surface plume effects.

This mission builds on the success of Blue Ghost Mission 1, which landed on Mare Crisium in March 2024. That flight delivered 10 payloads, operated for about 14 Earth days, and returned more than 27 gigabytes of data, including footage of a solar eclipse and sunset. The lander touched down upright and within 100 meters of its target. That performance made Firefly the first commercial company to land and operate on the Moon under the CLPS program.

NASA’s goal with this latest mission is to further study the Moon’s polar resources, specifically hydrogen, water ice, and minerals, and to understand the radiation and thermal conditions in the area. These are key steps in planning for long-term human activity on the Moon.

Firefly is already preparing its second and third missions, which are headed to the Moon’s far side in 2026 and the Gruithuisen Domes in 2028.

“Firefly is honored to support another NASA CLPS task order as a proven, reliable partner for robotic missions to the Moon,” said Firefly CEO Jason Kim. “Following our first Blue Ghost mission that made history just a few months ago, this bold Firefly team proved we have the right mix of grit, innovation, and dedication to not only stick the landing, but also complete all scientific objectives for our payload partners.”

FMI: www.fireflyspace.com