CEDAR PARK, Texas - Firefly Aerospace in Cedar Park, Texas, has been awarded a $144 million contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to conduct a robotic lunar delivery mission in 2028 using the company's Blue Ghost lunar lander.
The contract is Firefly's sixth contracted lunar mission and returns the Blue Ghost lander to the moon's near side with three NASA scientific payloads. Firefly says it anticipates building, testing, and delivering the lander in approximately two years, roughly half the time required for the first Blue Ghost mission. The company says this is made possible by leveraging a proven design, standardized manufacturing processes, and operational experience.
Blue Ghost is designed as a standardized lunar delivery platform that provides payload power, communications, command-and-data handling, and thermal management throughout transit, lunar orbit, landing, and surface operations. and support payloads for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. For this mission, Firefly expects to deliver up to 240 kilograms, which is nearly 530 pounds.
NASA payload details
NASA's payload includes a trio of scientific instruments designed to support future robotic and human exploration of the lunar surface.
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The agency's Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a passive optical instrument composed of precision corner-cube reflectors that require no electrical power. The instrument will serve as a permanent geodetic reference point on the lunar surface, enabling precision laser ranging from Earth to improve measurements of the Earth-moon distance while supporting studies of lunar rotation and its interior.
The Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS) will characterize the lunar radiation environment by measuring the linear energy transfer of energetic charged particles. The data will help validate radiation transport models used to design spacecraft electronics, habitats, and other systems intended for long-duration lunar operations.
The Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will capture stereo imagery of the interaction between the lander's descent engine plume and the lunar surface during touchdown. The images will allow researchers to better understand dust erosion, ejecta, and plume-surface interactions that could affect future lunar landing sites and surface infrastructure. A version of SCALPSS previously flew on Blue Ghost's first lunar mission.
Beyond the CLPS mission, Firefly is also developing a broader cislunar transportation architecture that pairs the Blue Ghost lander with its Elytra orbital vehicle to support lunar orbit operations, payload deployment, and long-duration cislunar missions. The company said it is also expanding its spacecraft production facility near Austin, Texas, to support the simultaneous production of multiple Blue Ghost and Elytra vehicles.
