Mission Update
Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 1:11 a.m. EST on January 15, 2025. Blue Ghost separated from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a highly elliptical Earth orbit at 2:17 a.m. EST and established communications with Firefly’s Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas, at 2:26 a.m. EST.
Mission Summary
Blue Ghost Mission 1 will deliver 10 science and technology instruments to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Upon launching on January 15, Blue Ghost is spending approximately 45 days traveling to the Moon, allowing ample time to conduct health checks on each subsystem and begin payload science. Blue Ghost is set to land in Mare Crisium on March 2 and operate payloads for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days). On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the Moon’s horizon. Blue Ghost will then capture the lunar sunset on March 16, providing data on how lunar dust levitates due to solar influences and creates a lunar horizon glow first documented by Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17. Following sunset, Blue Ghost will operate several hours into the lunar night.
Standing 2 m (6.6 ft) tall and 3.5 m (11.5 ft) wide, Blue Ghost is designed for stability with shock absorbing feet, a low center of mass, and a wide footprint. Blue Ghost’s core components, including the panels, struts, legs, harnesses, avionics, batteries, and thrusters, were built using many of the same flight-proven technologies common to all of Firefly’s launch and orbital vehicles, enabling lower costs and improved reliability.