SpaceX is launching Blue Ghost and landing landers on the Moon

Two private spacecraft destined to land on the Moon are set to blast off on a SpaceX rocket, in a sign of increased commercial activity on the lunar surface.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and Space’s Resilience lander have both gotten a ride on the same Falcon 9 rocket, currently scheduled for liftoff at 6.11am GMT (1.11am EST) on January 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Is determined for.

The launch will be iSpace’s second attempt to land on the Moon. It first ended in failure when its Hakuto-R spacecraft crashed into the lunar surface in 2023. The Japanese company says it has since upgraded its flexible hardware and software to avoid the mistakes that led to the accident.

Meanwhile, American company Firefly Aerospace will be making its first attempt. The firm has a contract with NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which pays private companies to achieve its scientific goals.

Resilience will carry six payloads to the lunar surface, including an experiment to produce food on the Moon using microalgae, and a micro rover that will roam, analyze and photograph the landing area. Blue Ghost is set to carry a mix of 10 private and public payloads to the moon, including a radiation-resistant computer, a drill that will measure how heat flows through the moon’s surface and a satellite receiver. Which will attempt to establish a permanent link. Earth’s GPS network.

Both missions will reach Earth orbit relatively quickly, within a few minutes of launch, but it will be much longer before they reach the Moon. Blue Ghost will orbit Earth for 25 days before firing up its engines to begin a four-day trip to the moon, where it will remain in orbit for 16 days. Next, it will autonomously descend and land in a field called Mari Crisium, where it will spend two weeks carrying out its scientific goals.

Resilience will take a more circuitous route on a journey that will see it fly past the Moon a month after launch, glide into deep space for months, before turning back toward the Moon. Once it enters orbit, it is due to land in a plain called Mare Frigoris between four and five months after launch.

If the missions are successful, they will become the second and third private spacecraft to land on the Moon. The first was Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander, which touched down last year.

Blue Ghost and Resilience are among around a dozen spacecraft expected to touch lunar soil this year, largely operated by NASA’s CLP, many to test technology needed for a future permanent human presence on the Moon. And are designed to display. These include the second and third missions from Sahaj Machines. IM-2 will look to drill near the south lunar pole for buried ice that could be used in future missions, as well as deploy two exploratory rovers and a lunar satellite to communicate with Earth .