Fly Me to the Moon: Companies Are Making It Happen

It’s hard to soft land on the Earth’s satellite, but there are private firms finding a way.

Jack Daleo

Friday, June 13, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

NASA’s SCALPSS cameras capture a lunar sunset, with Earth and Venus visible on the horizon. [Courtesy: Firefly Aerospace]

Key Takeaways:

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a historic and successful mission, becoming the most accomplished private lunar lander in history by collecting valuable data and images for NASA.
This success is a turning point for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which leverages private companies for cost-effective lunar deliveries to test technologies and scout sites for the upcoming Artemis human missions.
Despite numerous commercial lunar landing failures due to the inherent difficulty, NASA continues to expand the CLPS program, viewing these missions as valuable for data collection and accepting failures as part of its strategic shift to commercial partnerships for lunar exploration.

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When Frank Sinatra popularized “Fly Me to the Moon,” he was probably envisioning a trip up on NASA’s Apollo Lunar Module, which to date is the only lander to deposit humans on the rocky satellite. But space, once the domain of governments and militaries, is an increasingly commercial arena.

In March, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down near the moon’s Mons Latreille, a 4-mile wide mountain rising from the lava plains of the Mare Crisium basin. Over the following lunar day (about two Earth weeks), the car-sized vehicle beamed back a treasure trove of data and, by the time it powered down, accomplished more than any private lunar lander in history.