spacetoday.net: Firefly selects SpaceX for launch of lunar lander

Firefly selects SpaceX for launch of lunar lander

Posted: Tue, May 25, 2021, 7:51 PM ET (2351 GMT)
Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander

Firefly Aerospace selected SpaceX to launch its first lunar lander mission. Firefly announced Thursday its Blue Ghost lunar lander will launch on a Falcon 9 in late 2023 on a mission to the Mare Crisium region of the moon. Firefly won a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract earlier this year for the lander mission, which will carry both NASA and commercial payloads. Blue Ghost is too heavy to launch on Firefly's own Alpha rocket, requiring it to purchase a launch from another company. Five of the six lunar lander missions that have won CLPS awards to date are launching on SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rockets, with only Astrobotic's Peregrine launching on ULA's Vulcan.