NASA, Firefly Invite Media to Discuss End of Blue Ghost Moon Mission

NASA and Firefly Aerospace will host a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, March 18, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss the company’s successful Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the Moon’s surface.

Watch the news conference on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

U.S. media interested in participating in person or remotely must request accreditation by 5 p.m., Monday, March 17, by contacting the NASA Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. To ask questions via phone, media must dial into the news conference no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the call.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down March 2, on the Moon’s Mare Crisium basin. The lander’s NASA payloads were activated, collected science data, and performed operations as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence. The mission is not designed to survive through the lunar night; however, Blue Ghost continued operations for five hours after lunar sunset on March 16.

Participants will include:

• Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington 
• Jason Kim, CEO, Firefly Aerospace
• Ray Allensworth, spacecraft program director, Firefly
• Adam Schlesinger, CLPS project manager, NASA Johnson

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 mission launched at 1:11 a.m., Jan. 15, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander delivered 10 NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations including testing and demonstrating lunar drilling technology, regolith (lunar rocks and soil) sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation. The data captured will benefit humans on Earth in many ways, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact our home planet. 

NASA continues to work with multiple American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface through the agency’s CLPS initiative. This pool of companies may bid on NASA contracts for end-to-end lunar surface delivery services, including all payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon.

Through the Artemis campaign, commercial robotic deliveries will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities on and around the Moon to help NASA explore in advance of Artemis Generation astronaut missions to the lunar surface, and ultimately crewed missions to Mars.

For more information about the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative: 

https://www.nasa.gov/clps

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Karen Fox / Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600  
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov

Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston 
281-483-5111 
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov