CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Prepare yourself, moon: Two private landers have reached space and will shortly be on their way to you!
The two lunar landers — Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Resilience, constructed by the Japanese firm ispace — launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early this morning (Jan. 15) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida’s Space Coast.
The Falcon 9 departed at 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT) under a full moon and an unclouded, starry sky. The rocket’s first stage returned to Earth as anticipated, landing on SpaceX’s “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship, stationed miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 8.5 minutes post-liftoff.
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching the Blue Ghost and Resilience lunar landers on Jan. 15, 2025. (Image credit: NASA)
The rocket’s second stage continued its trajectory upwards. If everything proceeds as intended, it will place Blue Ghost into a lunar transfer orbit approximately 65 minutes following launch and release Resilience 27 minutes thereafter.
