NASA selects Firefly Aerospace for mission to moon’s far side in 2026

Space.com

1 year ago

NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace to land payloads on the moon and send another into orbit to provide communications with the lunar far side.

The mission will use Texas-based Firefly Aerospace’s robotic Blue Ghost lander to safely deliver two payloads to the far side of the moon, which permanently faces away from Earth.

The launch will first send the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Lunar Pathfinder communications and navigation satellite into an elliptical orbit around the moon to relay signals between Earth and the payloads on the surface.

Artist’s illustration of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost transfer vehicle deploying the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite in lunar orbit. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

The payloads destined for the surface are the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night), which is designed to understand the moon’s radio environment and peer into the unobserved cosmic “dark ages,” and User Terminal (UT), which will provide communications support for LuSEE-Night.

NASA announced on Tuesday (March 14) that it had awarded Firefly the $112 million contract as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The initiative is part of the agency’s larger Artemis program.

“NASA continues to look at ways to learn more about our universe,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in a statement (opens in new tab). “Going to the lunar far side will help scientists understand some of the fundamental physics processes that occurred during the early evolution of the universe.”