Earlier last week, Firefly Aerospace, based in Austin, became the first commercial company ever to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon!
According to a post on the company's website, Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, "set the tone for the future of exploration across cislunar space as the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful soft-landing on the Moon."
Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said in a statement, "Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon. Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar surface with 10 NASA payloads and a plaque with every Firefly employee's name. This bold, unstoppable team has proven we're well equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the Moon, and we won't stop there.
With annual lunar missions, Firefly is paving the way for a lasting lunar presence that will help unlock access to the rest of the solar system for our nation, our partners, and the world."
Blue Ghost is now conducting surface operations and will provide support for several NASA science and technology demonstrations.
Shea Ferring, Chief Technology Officer at Firefly Aerospace, said, "With the hardest part behind us, Firefly looks forward to completing more than 14 days of surface operations, again raising the bar for commercial cislunar capabilities. Just through transit to the Moon, Firefly's mission has already delivered the most science data to date for the NASA CLPS initiative.
CLPS has played a key role in Firefly's evolution from a rocket company to a provider of launch, lunar, and on-orbit services from LEO to cislunar and beyond. We want to thank NASA for entrusting in the Firefly team, and we look forward to delivering even more science data that supports future human missions to the Moon and Mars."
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