Two lunar missions took place early Wednesday morning when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket carried two moon landers – the Blue Ghost lander by Firefly Aerospace of Austin, Texas, and the Resilience lander from Ispace of Japan. The sharing of one rocket by two landers was not planned by Firefly or Ispace, but rather resulted from fortuitous scheduling by SpaceX. Firefly had purchased a Falcon 9 launch for its Blue Ghost lander, while Ispace had requested a rideshare to save on costs for its Resilience lander.
The Blue Ghost lander is a robotic lander developed by Firefly Aerospace to take scientific instruments and other payloads to the surface of the moon. This mission is headed to Mare Crisium, a flat plain formed from lava inside a crater on the near side of the moon. NASA has agreed to pay Firefly $101.5 million if it successfully takes 10 payloads to the lunar surface. On the other hand, Ispace’s Resilience lander is on its second attempt to place a commercial lander on the moon, following a failed attempt in 2023. The Resilience spacecraft carries different payloads, including a water electrolyzer experiment and a small rover named Tenacious.
Blue Ghost is expected to arrive at the moon first, on March 2, following a four-day journey after circling Earth for 25 days. It will orbit the moon for 16 days before attempting to land, 45 days after the launch. Resilience will take a longer path to conserve energy and propellant and will need to perform a flyby of the moon to adjust its position for capture into lunar orbit. The vehicle is scheduled to land on Mare Frigoris about four to five months after launch. Another spacecraft from Intuitive Machines of Houston is also scheduled to launch late February and may potentially beat both Blue Ghost and Resilience to the moon.
NASA’s collaboration with private companies for moon missions under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program aims to send more devices to the moon at a lower cost, while also kickstarting a commercial industry on the moon. By working with private companies, NASA hopes to conduct experiments, test new technologies, and ultimately advance space exploration. While setbacks and failures are to be expected in these missions, such as propulsion failures and tipping of spacecraft, they represent valuable learning experiences in the quest to establish a sustained human presence on the moon and beyond.
