Sun Mar 02 07:30:00 UTC 2025: ## Texas Company’s Lunar Lander Nears Historic Moon Landing
**AUSTIN, Texas —** Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company, is on the verge of making history. Its robotic lunar lander, Blue Ghost, is poised to attempt a soft landing on the moon at 2:34 a.m. CT (3:34 a.m. ET) on March 2nd. This would make Firefly only the second private company to achieve a successful lunar soft landing.
Launched in January aboard a SpaceX rocket, Blue Ghost has spent time in Earth’s orbit before beginning its lunar journey. The lander carries ten NASA science instruments as part of the Artemis program’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, aiming to collect crucial data on the moon’s subsurface, including lunar dust and regolith. This data will inform future lunar and Martian missions.
Blue Ghost is targeting a landing site near Mons Latreille, a mountain in the Mare Crisium basin, chosen for its minimal magnetic anomalies. The mission’s success is crucial for NASA’s broader Artemis program, aiming to return astronauts to the moon by mid-2027 and establish a long-term lunar presence.
Firefly’s mission control team reported a calm and prepared atmosphere leading up to the landing. Blue Ghost has experienced few technical issues during its journey. A planned communications blackout occurred as the lander passed behind the moon, but contact is expected to resume shortly after a crucial engine burn.
NASA is investing $101 million in Firefly’s mission, with an additional $44 million allocated for the experiments onboard. The successful landing would mark a significant milestone in the burgeoning private space race, with several other commercial lunar landers currently en route to the moon.
The livestream of the landing attempt is available online, and CNN will be providing live updates from a company event near Firefly’s headquarters. The landing is anticipated to be a critical step towards future crewed missions to the Moon and beyond.
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