Blue Ghost Mission 2 will go where no American mission has landed before.
Firefly Aerospace’s Ocula service will be activated onboard Elytra as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, which is targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026.
Firefly Aerospace is on contract to deploy two additional Elytra vehicles to lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 3 and Mission 4.
Elytra will first serve as a transfer vehicle and long-haul communications relay for Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander.
Blue Ghost Mission 3 and Mission 4 are intended to enable faster revisit times for space domain awareness, lunar surface mapping, and resource detection.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 will target a landing site on the lunar far side.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 uses a stacked configuration that is 22 feet, or 6.9 meters, high.
Blue Ghost Mission 1 became the first commercial spacecraft in history to achieve a fully successful soft landing on the Moon on March 2, 2025.
After landing, the Blue Ghost vehicle will support surface operations for at least 10 days.
Firefly Aerospace confirmed on April 8, 2026 that assembly and environmental testing are accelerating for Blue Ghost Mission 2.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 is scheduled to launch no earlier than late 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The first LightPort will fly on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, awarded in 2021, was valued at $93.3 million for 10 NASA payloads.
Blue Ghost Mission 1 completed Firefly Aerospace’s first fully successful commercial Moon landing last year.
Blue Ghost Mission 2 is targeted for launch toward the end of the year.
Redwire’s cameras captured photos on Firefly’s Blue Ghost flight and on Intuitive Machines missions under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
The Blue Ghost Mission 2 separation test demonstrated mechanisms on Elytra that release Firefly Aerospace’s Dual Payload Attach Fitting.
The Elytra mechanisms enable deployment of ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite into lunar orbit after separation of Blue Ghost Mission 2.
Firefly Aerospace completed a separation test for Blue Ghost Mission 2.