Firefly Aerospace prepares for Blue Ghost 2 lunar mission

The Cedar Park company aims to launch its second moon landing later this year.

Apr. 8, 2026 at 10:19pm

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An abstract, highly structured painting in soft, earthy tones of green, brown, and blue, featuring sweeping geometric arcs, concentric planetary circles, and precise botanical spirals, conceptually representing the complex scientific forces and natural phenomena involved in a lunar landing mission.Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 2 mission will advance lunar science and exploration, building on the company's successful first moon landing.Cedar Park Today

Firefly Aerospace, a private space company based in Cedar Park, Texas, is gearing up for the Blue Ghost 2 lunar mission later this year. The mission will focus on scientific research, including radio astronomy to study the early universe. Firefly made history in 2022 as the first private company to successfully land on the moon, and now they are working to prove that was not a fluke.

Why it matters

Firefly's Blue Ghost 2 mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which aims to establish a sustainable lunar economy by partnering with private companies. The mission will demonstrate new commercial rover capabilities and advance scientific understanding of the moon.

The details

The Blue Ghost 2 lunar lander is currently being assembled and tested by Firefly's technicians in their Cedar Park "clean room" facility. The mission will deliver a payload to the far side of the moon, including a small rover from the United Arab Emirates' MBRSC. Once deployed, the rover will travel the lunar surface and provide visual documentation of the lander. Firefly sees this as a crucial step in proving the viability of a commercial lunar industry.

  • Firefly Aerospace successfully landed on the moon for the first time in 2022.
  • The Blue Ghost 2 mission is scheduled to launch later in 2026, though an exact date has not been announced.

The players

Firefly Aerospace

A private space company based in Cedar Park, Texas, that is working on the Blue Ghost 2 lunar mission as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

Kevin Scholtes

A Future Systems Architect at Firefly Aerospace who designed several of the systems for the Blue Ghost 2 mission.

Amanda Woodard

A member of the Firefly team that successfully landed on the moon in 2022.

MBRSC

The United Arab Emirates' Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, which is providing a small rover that will travel the lunar surface as part of the Blue Ghost 2 mission.

Gene Cernan

The last human to walk on the moon, who is buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

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What they’re saying

“It's sort of the moment before the big plunge for everyone. We're excited about watching the Artemis program, but it's really raising the stakes for everyone about what's going to come next.”

— Kevin Scholtes, Future Systems Architect, Firefly Aerospace

“Mission 2 is a science mission. It's focused on doing discovery work for the cosmic dark ages. So, we are helping deliver a payload to the surface of the moon that's going to be doing radio astronomy, looking at the very origins of the universe, down to the first few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.”

— Kevin Scholtes, Future Systems Architect, Firefly Aerospace

“It's just been buzzing, like we call this building the Hive for a reason, because we are constantly go, go, go, let's not just rest on our claim to fame for mission one. We are ready to do it again, to prove that it wasn't a fluke. And it is real, it is really buzzing.”

— Amanda Woodard, Firefly Aerospace team member

What’s next

Firefly Aerospace is expanding its clean room facility in Cedar Park in response to a request from NASA to ramp up for monthly moon missions.

The takeaway

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 2 mission represents the continued progress of private companies in the commercial space industry, as they work to establish a sustainable lunar economy and advance scientific understanding of the moon.