Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, originally scheduled to lift off in late 2024, is on its maiden voyage. The uncrewed spacecraft is expected to travel for 45 days before trying to touch down in early March. Its flight is the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission of the year .

A SpaceX rocket carrying two commercial lunar landers took off toward space early Wednesday morning in another step toward an era of private moon exploration. This carpool to the moon carried Blue Ghost,

Robotic vehicles from Firefly Aerospace of Texas and Ispace of Japan parted ways early Wednesday after being launched on the same SpaceX rocket. Both are aiming for the lunar surface.