A private company has successfully landed landed on the Moon for the first time

What just happened? Multiple governments and companies have struggled to land spacecraft safely on the Moon in recent years. As NASA’s goal of sending humans to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century faces repeated delays, a Texas-based company has become the first private entity to complete a fully successful landing.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander successfully touched down on the lunar surface at 3:34 a.m. ET (02:34 CST) on Sunday, becoming the first non-governmental object to land on the Moon without issue. The feat marks an early step in NASA’s efforts to establish a lunar economy.

The two-meter lander lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 15, embarking on a leisurely 45-day mission to the Moon. In the hours following touchdown, the Blue Ghost transmitted impressive images of its thrusters, antenna, and shadow on the lunar surface, visually confirming a fully successful mission. It recently sent a photo of a sunrise (below).

Two other private companies previously attempted Moon landings, one was a failure and the other was a partial success. In 2023, Japanese firm ispace lost contact with its Hakuto lander in the final minutes of its descent, indicating that it likely crashed. The Odysseus lander from Intuitive Machines touched down the following year, becoming the first American craft to reach the Moon since 1972, but it fell over after a rough landing, shortening the mission.

Governments have also recently encountered problems. Russia’s LUNA-25 mission crashed in 2023, and Japan’s SLIM craft landed upside down last year. Although the partially successful mission made Japan the fifth country to send an object to the Moon intact, the lander failed to receive sufficient power to complete its mission.

The United States’ Artemis I mission successfully orbited the moon in 2023, but the next phase – Artemis II’s manned flyby – has suffered multiple delays. If it succeeds next year, the US might send the first astronauts to the lunar surface in over 50 years as soon as 2027.

Multiple governments and companies are planning infrastructure projects on the Moon, including data centers, rail lines, concrete buildings, nuclear reactors, and more. NASA science instruments onboard the Blue Ghost will conduct experiments to begin laying the groundwork for future commercial missions.

For those wondering why reaching the Moon seems harder than it was in the 1960s and 70s, money and safety are the primary reasons. A lengthy 2024 report from Scientific American explains that the Artemis missions are trying to repeat what Apollo accomplished with fewer missions, more safely, and at a fraction of the budget.