SpaceX launches 2 privately-built landers to the Moon
15 Jan 2025

In a major milestone, SpaceX has successfully launched two lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost-1 and iSpace's Hakuto-R Mission 2, on a single Falcon 9 rocket.

The mission was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This historic event opens a new chapter in Moon exploration and highlights the collaborative spirit of space exploration, with each lander representing different nations and technologies.

Blue Ghost-1's mission to Mare Crisium
Scientific expedition

The Blue Ghost-1, developed by US-based Firefly Aerospace, is a part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. It is carrying 10 scientific instruments to Mare Crisium, a large lunar basin.

The lander will take about 45 days to reach the Moon, where it will land autonomously and perform two weeks of scientific operations.

These will include capturing images of the lunar sunset before powering down.

Hakuto-R2's journey to Mare Frigoris
Lunar exploration

The Resilience lander, developed by Japanese company iSpace, will take a longer journey to Mare Frigoris in the Moon's northern hemisphere.

This mission builds on lessons learned from iSpace's previous attempt in April 2023, which crashed during landing due to sensor malfunctions.

Resilience will deploy a microrover named Tenacious to collect lunar regolith samples as part of its mission objectives.

A new era of collaboration in space exploration
Partnership progress

This dual launch marks the dawn of a new era of collaboration between private companies and government space agencies. It also emphasizes the role of commercial entities in space exploration.

As NASA plans to return humans to the Moon with the Artemis mission, these successful launches mark a major step toward advancing scientific research and paving the way for future human exploration of the Moon.