From Idea to Pure Success: Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Evolution

Firefly Aerospace has been in the headlines following the successful landing of the Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon. This achievement made Firefly Aerospace the first commercial firm to complete a lunar landing successfully, but the achievement didn’t take a day, but four years.

Development Of The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Lunar Lander

On 4 February 2021, NASA awarded Firefly Aerospace the contract to develop a lunar lander under the Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) initiative. Worth over $93.3 million, this contract sparked the start of something great for Firefly Aerospace and NASA, requiring a ton of work to complete.

At the time of winning this NASA contract, Firefly Aerospace was under Max Polyakov’s management and his influence fuelled the success of the Blue Ghost mission. In a LinkedIn post from 5 March 2025, Eric Salwan, the co-founder of Firefly, praised Polyakov for his impact and investment in Firefly, helping the firm complete the NASA contract.

In his post, Salwin thanked Polyakov for his “vision, determination, trust and off the charts ability to take the risks necessary to bring your dreams to life.” During his stay in Firefly between 2017-2022 Polyakov invested $200 million into the firm to help it achieve greater rights in the space industry, such as its successful moon landing for the NASA contract.

This contract was for the Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery which was expected to take place in 2023. The lunar lander to be developed under the clauses of this contract was to be able to deliver “10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon.”

It is also important to note that this is the “first delivery awarded to Firefly Aerospace” and naturally some might expect there to be some issues with the lander due to a ‘lack of experience’ on Firefly’s part. However, the space firm took its time to perfectly develop this lunar lander, hence ensuring that it sticks to the lunar landing.

In May 2021, the SpaceX Falcon 9 was selected as the official launcher for this mission in place of the Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket. This is because the Blue Ghost payload was too large to mount the Alpha rocket on a ride to space.

The Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Takes Baby Steps Towards Success

After winning this contract and commencing work on the development of the lunar lander Firefly Aerospace announced the completion of the Integration Readiness Review (IRR). This review was completed on 26 April 2022 and the launch of the lunar lander was scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024.

The components of this lunar lander include one X-Band antenna, three S-Band antennas, three solar panels, 6 carbon fibre tanks, and four shock-absorbing legs. Other components include 49 carbon fibre struts, 12 ACS thrusters, eight RCS thrusters, two vision navigation cameras, and one main engine.

The main development of the Blue Ghost main engine was completed in May 2024 and fully integrated in June 2024. With such impressive progress on the lunar launcher, Firefly Aerospace stood its ground concerning its plans for a 2024 launch.

However, some issues were faced pushing the launch to 2025 following pre-launch testing in August 2024. Firefly Aerospace gave an official announcement for the 2025 Blue Ghost launch in November 2024 after getting everything in place for the launch.

A Historic Launch For Firefly Aerospace And NASA

On 15 January 2025, the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lunar launcher was officially launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon rocket. Firefly pointed out that this mission will take 45 days to reach its target, which is the Moon with the 10 NASA science and technology instruments.

The image above shows off the trajectory of the Blue Ghost lander after its takeoff. On 2 March 2025, the lander officially stepped its four shock-absorbing legs on the Moon’s surface making it “the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful Moon landing.”

Following the touchdown, NASA was able to confirm that all 10 payload instruments aboard the Blue Ghost were active and operational. Data and findings from these instruments will help NASA pave the way for future Moon missions.

Firefly Aerospace is also preparing more Blue Ghost lunar lander missions slated for 2026 and 2028. More information on these missions will be available as we draw closer to their official launch dates.