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Two recently launched private lunar landers have significant journeys ahead.
On Tuesday morning (Jan. 15), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Blue Ghost and Resilience — lunar landers manufactured by Firefly Aerospace and the Tokyo-based firm ispace, respectively — into the vast expanse from Florida’s Space Coast.
However, neither spacecraft is currently on the way to the moon. Here’s an overview of their upcoming activities in the weeks to come.
Blue Ghost is set to spend the next 25 days in Earth’s orbit, performing various system checks and collecting data using some of its 10 scientific and technological instruments — NASA equipment that secured their slots on board through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The lander — Firefly’s inaugural mooncraft — will subsequently execute an engine burn to commence its journey towards the moon. Blue Ghost will achieve lunar orbit four days later and dwell there for 16 days prior to attempting a landing in Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) on the lunar near side.
The solar-powered Blue Ghost, along with its 10 NASA payloads — details available here — will then perform activities on the lunar surface for an entire lunar day, approximately two Earth weeks. This operation will conclude once the sun sets over Mare Crisium.
“After conducting payload operations, Blue Ghost will capture images of the lunar sunset and provide vital data regarding how lunar regolith responds to solar influences during conditions of lunar dusk,” representatives from Texas-based Firefly mentioned in a mission description, which is termed Ghost Riders in the Sky. “The lander will afterward function for several hours into the lunar night.”
The entire mission duration, from launch until lunar sunset, is anticipated to last about 60 Earth days.
The mission of Resilience will last over twice as long, provided everything unfolds as planned. The ispace lander is following a lengthy, energy-efficient route to lunar orbit; it is expected to arrive at its target four months from now. (There’s also a significant milestone prior to that: a lunar flyby that Resilience will conduct in approximately a month.)
ispace will then take an additional two weeks preparing for the landing attempt, which is slated to occur in the Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”) area of the moon’s northern hemisphere.
Resilience is equipped with five scientific and technological payloads from various commercial and academic collaborators. Among these items is a microrover named Tenacious, which was created by the company’s subsidiary in Luxembourg. This 11-pound (5-kilogram) rover will be deployed onto the lunar surface to collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA. (However, the U.S. space agency did not contribute any of the payloads on Resilience.)
The ispace lander is also transporting a piece of culture to Earth’s closest celestial body — “Moonhouse,” a small red-and-white model home designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.
Resilience represents the second lander that ispace has dispatched to the moon. The first successfully reached lunar orbit in March 2023 but crashed during its landing attempt a month later due to confusion caused by a crater’s rim.
Only one private spacecraft has ever managed to land successfully on the moon. Odysseus, created by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, achieved this historic milestone in February 2024.
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