NASA chose Firefly Aerospace to land payloads on the moon and send another into orbit to provide communications with the far side of the moon.
The mission will use robotics from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Lander to safely deliver two payloads to the far side of the moon, which permanently faces Earth.
The launch will first send the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Lunar Pathfinder communications and navigation satellite into an elliptical orbit around the moon to relay signals between Earth and surface payloads.
Related: Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket reaches orbit for the first time
Payloads for the surface are the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night), which is designed to understand the moon’s radio environment and peer into the unobserved cosmic.”dark times” and User Terminal (UT), which will provide communication support for LuSEE-Night.
NASA announced on Tuesday (March 14) that it had awarded Firefly the $112 million contract for commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) program. The initiative is part of the broader framework of the agency Artemis program.
“NASA continues to seek ways to learn more about our universe,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement. statement (opens in a new tab). “Going to the far side of the Moon will help scientists understand some of the fundamental physical processes that occurred early in the evolution of the universe.”
“This mission will launch Firefly’s unique two-stage Blue Ghost spacecraft, providing NASA and other customers with multiple deployment options as we collectively build the infrastructure for ongoing lunar operations and planetary exploration. “said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, in a different statement (opens in a new tab).
This is the second CLPS contract for Firefly. In 2021, the company was selected to place 10 payloads on the near side of the moon. This Blue Ghost mission will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2024.
China made the first landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019 with its Chang’e 4 lander and rover mission.
Follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab)Or on Facebook (opens in a new tab) And instagram (opens in a new tab).