Georgetown Edition | April 2025

Business

BY SAM SCHAFFER

Firey Aerospace, a commercial space services company headquartered in Cedar Park, announced its lunar lander touched down March 2, marking the rst time a commercial company has success- fully landed on the moon. The lander, codenamed Blue Ghost, touched down on the surface of the moon in an upright and stable conguration, according to a news release from Firey. What else? The landing marked the end of Blue Ghost’s 45-day journey. The lander delivered instruments to the moon’s surface for NASA, and Blue Ghost performed 14 days of surface operations, accord- ing to the company’s website. “Firey is literally and guratively over the moon,” Firey CEO Jason Kim said in the release. “Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a perma- nent home on the lunar surface with 10 NASA payloads and a plaque with every Firey employ- ee’s name.” Mapping it out Blue Ghost delivered 10 NASA instruments, and all of the instruments operated successfully, according to a news release. Firey announced in the March 17 release Blue Ghost had met 100% of its mission objectives. “We’re incredibly proud of the demonstrations Blue Ghost enabled from tracking GPS signals on the moon for the rst time to robotically drilling and collecting science deeper into the lunar surface than ever before,” Kim said in the release. Firey Aerospace marks historic moon landing

The far side of the moon as seen from Blue Ghost about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface.

PHOTOS COURTESY FIREFLY AEROSPACE

Key milestones completed on the moon

Demonstrated a computer that can withstand space radiation en route to the moon

Captured images providing insights into the eects of engine plumes on the lunar surface for future missions Drilled about 3 feet into the surface to measure temperatures and the ow of heat from the moon’s interior

Blue Ghost deploys the Lunar PlanetVac to the moon’s surface with a lunar access arm.

SOURCE: FIREFLY AEROSPACECOMMUNITY IMPACT

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