March 3, 2025
You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon.
Chief engineer of the Blue Ghost lunar lander, Will Coogan, after a successful touchdown on the moon.
Why It Matters: Austin-based Firefly Aerospace became the first ever commercial company to land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Moon landings have been completed by one other private company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines (though the vessel tipped over), and government space entities in the U.S., Russia, China, India and Japan. Firefly carries 10 experiments for NASA that will be carried out in the coming days and weeks. Further moon exploration is underway, with Intuitive Machines planning to land on a different region of the moon on Thursday and a Japanese private space company hoping to land on the moon in the next three months.
Read More: Private lunar lander Blue Ghost aces moon touchdown with a special delivery for NASA (AP)
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace
by Stephanie Wagner, based in Florida
