WASHINGTON, D.C.: Firefly Aerospace has achieved a major milestone in private space exploration, successfully landing its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the moon.

The touchdown marks the company's first lunar mission and positions it among a growing list of private firms aiming to shape the future of lunar exploration.

The four-legged lander, about the size of a compact car, touched down at 3:35 a.m. ET (0835 GMT) on Mare Crisium, a large lunar basin on the moon's Earth-facing side. It carried 10 scientific payloads, kicking off a two-week research mission.

As Blue Ghost descended, silence filled Firefly's Austin, Texas mission control, with tension breaking only when Will Coogan, the mission's chief engineer, confirmed success.

"We are on the moon," Coogan declared, prompting cheers from the team.

Firefly is now the second private company to achieve a lunar landing. Unlike Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander, which tipped over upon touchdown last year, Firefly claims its mission to be the first "fully successful" soft landing by a private firm.

Firefly joins an exclusive club—only five nations have achieved soft landings on the moon: the U.S., China, India, Japan, and the former Soviet Union. The latest wave of lunar activity comes as the U.S. and China compete to establish a sustained human presence on the moon, with both nations planning crewed missions before the decade's end.

Blue Ghost took a winding 2.8-million-mile journey, looping around Earth three times before reaching the moon a month and a half after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Its solar panels will power scientific instruments for 14 days before the lunar night plunges temperatures to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 173 degrees Celsius), ending its mission.

Firefly's mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which awarded the company a US$101 million contract to deliver research equipment. CLPS is designed to stimulate a private-sector lunar economy and pave the way for future human missions.

"We're hoping to get lower-cost missions at a faster pace, and we just have proof it works," said Chris Culbert, head of NASA's CLPS program.

Onboard experiments include a stereo camera from NASA's Langley Research Center to study lunar dust movement and instruments by Honeybee Robotics, a subsidiary of Blue Origin, which is developing a human-rated lander for NASA's Artemis program.

The success of Blue Ghost comes amid uncertainty in U.S. space policy, as President Donald Trump signals a shift toward Mars exploration—a vision shared by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Despite potential changes, NASA officials reaffirmed their commitment to dominating lunar exploration, with Acting Administrator Janet Petro stating, "The moon remains a key part of America's space strategy."