BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One Lander will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as early as next month.
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The commercial lunar lander will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to a more than 300-mile-wide basin located on the near side of the moon.
Experiments will look at lunar sub-surface drilling, radiation tolerant computing, dust mitigation, and more all in support of the Artemis campaign.
Firefly CEO Jason Kim said, “In the future, there’s all kinds of missions that you can do on the moon to mine the moon for natural resources that could help you with the gateway program, as well as on your way to mars.”
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On Wednesday, NASA announced Firefly Aerospace was awarded $179 million dollars to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface in 2028.
This fourth task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon.
Firefly is conducting the uncrewed robotic missions as part of NASA’s CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services.
Through CLPS, NASA is working to better understand the Moon’s environment to better prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach!
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