ispace Mission 2 will launch to the Moon on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket alongside Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 during a six-day window that opens no earlier than mid-January 2025.
Elytra Dark will deploy the Blue Ghost lander into lunar orbit and remain on orbit to provide long-haul communications during Blue Ghost Mission 3 operations.
Firefly’s second lunar mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 using a two-stage spacecraft configuration with the Blue Ghost lander stacked on Elytra Dark to support payload operations on the far side of the Moon and in lunar orbit.
Blue Ghost will land in the Gruithuisen Domes, deploy a rover, and support payload operations for more than 14 days on the lunar surface.
The NASA CLPS task order for the Blue Ghost mission is valued at $101 million, up from $93,000,000 at the time the agency awarded it in 2021.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander will separate first from the Falcon 9, after which the Falcon 9 upper stage will perform another burn and then ispace’s Resilience lander will be deployed.
Blue Ghost Mission 3 has capacity for additional customers to use Elytra for orbital transfer and long-haul communications in cislunar space and to use Blue Ghost for lunar surface delivery and operations.
Blue Ghost will land in the Gruithuisen Domes, deploy a rover from an industry provider, and support payload operations for more than 14 days on the lunar surface.
SPIDER is planned to remain tethered to Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander during a 14-day mission on the far side of the moon in 2026.
Fleet is developing a 600-gram version of its sensor to join Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander mission to the far side of the moon in 2026.
Firefly shipped Blue Ghost back to its spacecraft facility in north Austin, Texas and kept the lander there until receiving approval to ship to Cape Canaveral.
The Firefly team used additional mission simulations and preparatory activities at the north Austin spacecraft facility while awaiting the go to ship Blue Ghost to the Cape.
Blue Ghost is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a six-day window that opens no earlier than mid-January 2025.
The approximately 60-day Blue Ghost mission will be operated from Firefly Aerospace’s Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas.
Blue Ghost is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a six-day window that opens no earlier than mid-January 2025.
NASA awarded Firefly Aerospace a task order for Blue Ghost in February 2021 valued at $93,300,000 with a launch originally projected for 2023.
Blue Ghost environmental testing was completed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in mid-October 2024.
Firefly prepared to ship Blue Ghost to Cape Canaveral, Florida in mid-December 2024 for launch preparations.
Firefly Aerospace scheduled the Blue Ghost lunar lander to launch in the fourth quarter but has not provided a more specific launch date due to uncertainties in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch manifest.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander completed environmental testing and was returned to Firefly headquarters for final preparations as of the 2024-10-29 Lunar Exploration Analysis Group meeting.