WASHINGTON-
More than 50 years passed between the last Apollo mission and the return of the United States to the lunar surface, when the first private lander landed last February 2024.
Now, starting Sunday, two more missions will follow in a single week, marking a bold push by NASA and its industry partners to make moon landings a routine part of space exploration.
First up is Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, dubbed “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”
After launching in January on a 45-day journey, it aims to land near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature in Mare Crisium on the northeast side of the moon, at 3:34 a.m. ET. Along the way, it captured stunning images of the moon, zooming to within 100 kilometers above the surface.
The golden lander, about the size of a hippopotamus, carries 10 instruments, including one to analyze lunar soil, another to test radiation-tolerant computing and a GPS-based navigation system.
Designed to operate for a full lunar day (14 Earth days), Blue Ghost is expected to capture high-definition images of a total eclipse on March 14, when Earth blocks the Sun from the Moon’s horizon.
On March 16, it will record a lunar sunset, offering insight into how dust levitates above the surface under solar influence, creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.
Drone jumping
Blue Ghost’s arrival will be followed on March 6 by Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, with its lander, Athena.
Last year, Intuitive Machines made history as the first private company to achieve a soft landing on the moon, although the moment was marred by a mishap.
Descending too quickly, one of the lander’s feet caught on the lunar surface, tipping it over and causing it to rest on its side, limiting its ability to generate solar power and shortening the mission.
This time around, the company says it has made key improvements to the hexagonal-shaped lander, which has a taller, slimmer profile than the Blue Ghost and is about the height of an adult giraffe.
Athena launched Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket, taking a more direct route to Mons Mouton, the southernmost lunar landing site ever attempted.
It carries an ambitious set of payloads, including a unique hopping drone designed to explore the moon’s underground passages carved by ancient lava flows, a drill capable of digging 3 feet below the surface for ice, and three rovers.
The largest, the size of a beagle, will connect to the lander and hopper using a Nokia cellular network in a first-of-its-kind demonstration.
But “Grace,” the hopping drone (named after computer pioneer Grace Hopper) could well steal the show if it can prove it can navigate the moon’s treacherous terrain in a way no rover can.
NASA’s private lunar fleet
Landing on the moon presents unique challenges due to the absence of atmosphere, making parachutes ineffective. Instead, spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster firings to slow their descent while navigating dangerous terrain.
Until Intuitive Machines’ first successful mission, only five national space agencies had achieved this feat: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan, in that order.
Now, the United States is working to make private lunar missions routine through NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, a public-private initiative designed to deliver hardware to the surface at a fraction of the costs of traditional missions.
These missions come at a crucial time for NASA amid speculation that it could scale back or even cancel its Artemis lunar program in favor of prioritizing Mars exploration, a key goal of President Donald Trump and his close adviser, SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
