Mission Details
| Mission Name: Ghost Riders in the Sky |
| Mission Type: Lunar Lander |
| COSPAR: 2025-010A |
| NSSDCA: BLUEGHOST |
| NORAD: N/A |
| Operator: Firefly Aerospace Inc. |
| Launching State: United States of America |
| Location: Mare Crisium near Mons Latreille |
| Latitude: 18.562° N |
| Longitude: 61.80° E |
| Launch Date: 15 January 2025, 06:11 UT |
| Landing Date: 2 March 2025, 08:45 UT |
| Image Source: All: Firefly Aerospace |
Description
Blue Ghost Mission 1, a lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, delivered ten scientific and technological payloads to the Moon’s surface. Launched on 15 January 2025 at 06:11 UT aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center—alongside JAXA’s Resilience (Hakuto M2) mission—it entered lunar orbit on 13 February 2025. On 2 March 2025 at 08:45 UT, Blue Ghost landed in Mare Crisium near Mons Latreille, at coordinates 84.7906° N, 29.1957° E.
The mission investigated lunar interior heat flow, plume-surface interactions, and crustal electric and magnetic fields, while also capturing X-ray images of Earth’s magnetosphere. Technology demonstrations included regolith sampling, regolith adherence testing, Global Navigation Satellite System functionality, radiation-tolerant computing, and dust mitigation using electrodynamic fields. Surface operations spanned 346 hours of lunar daylight, extending 5 hours into the lunar night after local sunset, with the final communication received on 16 March 2025 at approximately 23:15 UT. All payloads performed successfully.
The Blue Ghost lander, a box-shaped structure with four landing legs and two equipment decks, supported a 155 kg payload capacity. Solar panels, adjustable to spacecraft orientation, delivered 450 W nominal power (650 W peak). Thermal management utilized heat pipes, radiators, multi-layer insulation, and active heaters. Surface communications provided an average downlink of 6 Mbps (10 Mbps peak) and an average uplink of 0.2 kbps (2 kbps peak). This mission marked a significant step in commercial lunar exploration, advancing our understanding of the Moon and testing innovative technologies for future missions.
Read more: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=BLUEGHOST
Above: Lander approaching the lunar surface.
Below: Blue Ghost on the surface of the Moon.
Heritage Consideration
Blue Ghost was the first commercial lunar lander to achieve an upright landing on the Moon.
