Commercial Flights to the Moon

Firefly’s Blue Ghost and iSpace’s second Hakuto R mission are now on their way to the moon.

Both spacecrafts were lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on January 15, 2025, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 and are doing well. 

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lander is named after a species of firefly found in the U.S. Appalachians. The mission includes 10 payloads as part of the NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Service program, which is also part of the Artemis initiative. Blue Ghost is planned to land in the Mare Crisium near Mons Latreille on the Moon’s nearside sometime in early March. 

An artist's conception of the Blue Ghost lander on the Moon
Firefly Aerospace

iSpace’s second Hakuto R, named Resilience, is due to land at Mare Frigoris sometime in the May to June time frame. The first Hakuto R lander failed in 2023, crashing at the Atlas Crater site, but it was nevertheless notable for returning an image of a solar eclipse from lunar orbit as the Moon's shadow passed over Earth's surface.

For more detailed information on these missions see Sky & Telescope