Two Private Landers Launch on a SpaceX Rocket, Aiming to Touch Down on the Moon

A SpaceX rocket carrying two commercial lunar landers took off toward space early Wednesday morning.

This carpool to the moon is transporting Blue Ghost, a lander built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, and Resilience, built by Japanese firm Ispace. The pair launched together on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. Eastern time. Once the two spacecraft reach the lunar surface, they will conduct independent explorations to collect data and test new technologies.

Blue Ghost is carrying ten scientific instruments from NASA in an agreement under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Through this initiative, the agency works with private companies to send lunar devices into space at a lower cost, with the aim to inform NASA’s Artemis missions, which plan to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

“Before we can send our humans back to the moon, we are sending a lot of science and a lot of technology ahead of time to prepare for that,” says Nicola Fox, head of NASA’s science mission directorate, to CBS News’ William Harwood.

The United States is the only nation that has landed humans on the moon, but five countries have achieved robotic lunar landings: the former Soviet Union, the U.S., China, India and Japan. It wasn’t until last year, however, that a private company joined their ranks: Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus spacecraft reached the moon’s surface in February 2024, though it landed on its side.

Now, Blue Ghost and Resilience have the potential to become the second and third private landers to touch down on lunar soil.

Blue Ghost is expected to take about 45 days to reach the moon, where it will collect soil samples, test various instruments and monitor X-rays in the Earth’s magnetic field. It’s slated to touch down in Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain.

Resilience has a longer path ahead. In order to save energy and fuel, it will take four to five months to reach a lunar plain called Mare Frigoris in the moon’s northern region. Once there, it will collect soil samples, conduct experiments and test technology, such as a water electrolyzer that splits water molecules to form hydrogen and oxygen.

This launch marks Ispace’s second go at a moon landing—its previous lander crashed into the moon in 2023.

The newly launched spacecraft will both have a full lunar day—around two weeks on Earth—to conduct their research after landing. That’s because they would not survive the harsh lunar nights, when temperatures can plummet to minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit.

Both companies say they have contacted their spacecraft post-launch, and the landers appear to be operating normally, notes CNN’s Jackie Wattles.

2025 is poised to be a big year for space exploration. Intuitive Machines, in a follow-up to its 2024 success, is set to launch its second lunar mission in February. That lander, called Athena, is intended to take a more direct path to the moon than both Blue Ghost and Resilience, meaning it might beat both of them there, per the New York Times’ Kenneth Chang.

More moon missions are on the schedule for later in the year, and many are meant to help NASA prepare for sending human astronauts to the lunar surface within this decade.

“This [Blue Ghost] mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA’s Artemis campaign—a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery,” says Pam Melroy, NASA deputy administrator, in a statement. “Each flight we’re part of is [a] vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the moon, Mars and beyond.”

Sara Hashemi | READ MORE

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.