SpaceX to Launch Blue Ghost Mission

Firefly Aerospace has awarded a contract to SpaceX to launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander in 2023. Blue Ghost will be carrying 10 payloads for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order 19D mission, in addition to separately contracted commercial payloads.

Firefly was awarded the CLPS 19D task order by NASA in February 2021, and has since made rapid progress on the Blue Ghost program. The team has key long-lead items on order, production underway, and is conducting regular vision navigation test flights at Firefly’s one-acre lunar landscape site in Briggs, Texas.

https://youtu.be/r2Oij3UOgSA

The Blue Ghost mission will include delivery of NASA payloads that will support scientific lunar research and will contribute to developing a sustainable presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis program.

Blue Ghost (named after the rare Phausis reticulata firefly) will land at Mare Crisium in the Moon’s Crisium basin, and operate on-board payloads through lunar transit, during lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface for a complete lunar day … about 14 Earth days … and then well into the freezing dark of lunar night.

Opportunities are open for early-career and seasoned professionals to work on Firefly’s lunar lander, launch vehicles, and various space-related projects.