A privately built spacecraft is hours from attempting to land on the moon, a feat that only one other company has accomplished in spaceflight history.
The robotic lander, dubbed Blue Ghost, has been in orbit around the moon for roughly two weeks, preparing for its daring descent. Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace developed the spacecraft, which aims to touch down on the lunar surface early Sunday at around 3:34 a.m. ET.
If all goes according to plan, Blue Ghost will become the second privately built vehicle to land on the moon successfully. In February 2024, another Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines, made history when its Odysseus lander pulled off a nail-biting touchdown near the moon’s south pole.
Firefly Aerospace’s upcoming landing attempt is the first in a flurry of robotic missions to the moon in 2025. Earlier this week, Intuitive Machines launched its second lander into space, with a targeted moon landing on or around March 6. And a lander and tiny rover developed by Japanese company ispace launched to the moon on the same rocket as Blue Ghost, but are taking a longer, less energy-intensive path and are expected to arrive in late May or early June.
Blue Ghost aims to touch down in a 350-mile-wide basin on the near side of the moon (the side that always faces Earth). The region is thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact, according to NASA.
Earlier this week, the lander beamed back footage of the pockmarked, crater-laden far side of the moon as it orbited roughly 62 miles above the surface.
Blue Ghost is expected to begin its hourlong descent to the moon a little after 2 a.m. ET on Sunday. NASA will broadcast a livestream beginning at 2:20 a.m. ET on NASA TV.
The spacecraft is carrying 10 NASA science instruments, including one that will probe the interior of the moon to depths of up to 700 miles. Cameras will snap X-ray images looking back at Earth, studying how space weather interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, while a separate camera will take detailed photos of the lander as it descends to the lunar surface in order to aid future missions to the moon.
Instruments aboard the lander will also analyze samples of lunar soil, study how much lunar dust sticks to different materials, and use lasers to measure the precise distance between Earth and the moon.
Blue Ghost is expected to spend about two weeks gathering data on the lunar surface.
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which was set up as a public-private partnership between the agency and more than a dozen U.S. companies to deliver NASA science experiments, technology and other cargo to the moon. It’s a component of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to eventually return humans to the moon.
The agency awarded Firefly Aerospace around $101.5 million to carry out the Blue Ghost mission.
NASA has said the science experiments and technology demonstrations on these missions will help scientists better understand the moon’s south polar region, where future crewed missions are expected to land.