NASA confirmed Sunday that Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed near Mons Latreille within the Mare Crisium basin on the Moon. This milestone marks Firefly's first lunar landing and the first delivery under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, Azernews reports.

The Blue Ghost lander carries 10 NASA science and technology instruments that will operate on the lunar surface for about 14 Earth days. These include lunar subsurface drilling, regolith sample collection, and radiation-tolerant computing experiments. NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro highlighted that “this incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and American companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all."

Having traveled over 2.8 million miles since its January 15 launch, the Blue Ghost mission also tested GNSS tracking at a record-breaking distance of 246,000 miles. CEO Jason Kim expressed excitement for future commercial exploration, emphasizing its potential impact on missions to the Moon and Mars.