Blue Ghost moon landing brings more calls for investment into space exploration

Blue Ghost Lunar Lander is successful

The successful landing of a Cedar Park lunar lander is putting the pressure on efforts to build a workforce that is capable of reaching for the stars. When Firefly Aerospace relocated to Cedar Park, the focus of the company was getting small satellites into orbit.

CEDAR PARK, Texas - The successful landing of a Cedar Park lunar lander is leading to more calls for investments in space exploration, especially in Texas.

Blue Ghost lunar lander

What we know:

A new image from the Blue Ghost lunar lander was recorded and made public Monday morning as the spacecraft began its second full day on the moon.

The lander was built by Firefly Aerospace, which relocated to Cedar Park about 10 years ago from California.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lands on moon

A lunar lander made right here in Central Texas is now on the moon. The lander, built by Firefly Aerospace and known as Blue Ghost, landed early Sunday morning. FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski has more from the landing watch event in Cedar Park.

Blue Ghost landed on the moon early Sunday morning while most of Firefly's 700 employees gathered to watch history in the making down here on Earth.

Launched in mid-January from Florida, the trip took 45 days, with the lander initially swinging around the Earth several times, allowing research teams to collect new data and test new equipment.

What they're saying:

Company CEO Jason Kim, during a post-lunar landing briefing on Monday, took note of the Lone Star accomplishment.

"We're just proud to be a Texas company, making Texas proud, making America proud," said Kim.

"One of the things that's really interesting for the government is to see all these different approaches and then see which ones which of those strengths are really realized in execution," said NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Joel Kearns.

Athena lunar lander

What we know:

In Houston, a team with Intuitive Machines is tracking the progress of its lunar lander Athena. On Monday, Athena began orbiting the moon and will attempt a landing on March 6.

Athena launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 26, marking the first time humanity has had three lunar landers en route to the moon at the same time, says Intuitive Machines.

The company's first lander, Odysseus, touched down on the moon on Feb. 20, but managed just a weak signal back until flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact.

"And we're rooting for them. That's incredible. That just shows you a proof point that Texas is the capital of lunar landers right now," said Kim.

The mission containing Athena is Intuitive Machine's second lunar mission as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts, says the company.

Investments in space exploration

Big picture view:

Space exploration by private companies, like Firefly and Intuitive Machines, is part of a bigger NASA plan. The goal is to collect data as part of a program to send humans back to the Moon, and then to Mars.

"I know when I was driving in today, and I was thinking about Austin, and I was like, this is so cool that we have Firefly right here in Austin, too," said Vanessa Wyche, acting associate administrator for NASA.

Firefly Aerospace one step closer to reaching moon

A Cedar Park company is another step closer to reaching the moon. Firefly Aerospace announced engineers have completed environmental testing on its Blue Ghost Lunar Lander.

Future innovation will hopefully come from Texas classrooms. Local opportunities in aerospace have been somewhat limited. Blue Ghost program manager Ray Allensworth believes that belief is changing.

"Whether you're an engineer or a technician or, you know, you work on our facility staff, you know, you're able to live and work where you grow up. And I think that's really important," said Allensworth.

It’s exactly what NASA wants to see, according to Nicky Fox with the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

"You know, we want to inspire the next generation. We want to build a sustainable economy, space economy for the US, inspiring these US companies to step forward and take on these challenges and support NASA to do great things," said Fox.

Local perspective:

The Texas Space Commission was created in 2023 to help grow the space industry across the state.

In February, nearly $50 million in grant money was awarded by the Commission. Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace were among the five companies to receive funding, which also included Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Starlab Space.

Texas Space Commission members announced

For the past six decades, Texas has been front and center when it comes to space exploration. On Tuesday, Texas took one giant leap toward cementing that status in the years to come

"And we're going to use those funds, those hard-earned funds towards expanding our lunar lander production line. And it just shows that, you know, Texas is committed to Space and to NASA," said Kim.

Two years ago, the Texas Legislature gave the space commission $150 million to help develop emerging spaceflight technologies. By September, the commission reportedly had more than $3 billion in requests for help.

Gov. Greg Abbott is urging lawmakers to authorize more funding to the agency's new budget.

The Source: Information in this report comes from reporting by FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski, including information from Firefly Aerospace and NASA, and previous reporting by FOX 7 Austin and the Associated Press.

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