U.S. aerospace company Firefly Aerospace cofounded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Max Polyakov will send a lunar lander to the surface of the Moon in 2023, the company announced on Feb. 4.
To do so, Firefly Aerospace signed a $93.3 million contract with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA.
According to NASA, the company’s Blue Ghost lander will deliver scientific equipment to the Moon’s Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). Firefly will also provide the spacecraft that will deliver the lander from the Earth to the Moon.
NASA wants to use Blue Ghost to explore the lunar environment, to learn more about the soil structure, temperature and radiation level at the surface. This research will help humans to prepare for flights to the Moon in the future, NASA said.
NASA hired Firefly Aerospace to participate in a U.S. government-funded program called Artemis, which aims to send two people to the Moon by 2024.
Polyakov’s Firefly Aerospace was the sixth company chosen by NASA to send lunar landers with scientific equipment to explore the Moon. The agency also works with SpaceX, founded by U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk and Blue Origin, established by American tycoon Jeff Bezos.
To choose the company, NASA first analyzes its technical feasibility, price and schedules.
Participation in NASA’s program is a big milestone for Firefly Aerospace, according to Polyakov.
“It’s extremely gratifying to know that NASA recognizes the tremendous talent we’ve assembled at Firefly,” he said. “This award is further validation of Firefly, its team and its mission to become a versatile provider of a broad range of space-related services.”
This isn’t the first time Firefly has worked with NASA. Earlier in December, the company signed a $9.8 million contract with it to launch satellites for space research.
Firefly Aerospace is also developing a robotic moon lander and a rocket called Beta for NASA. One launch of the Beta rocket will cost $35 million, but the rocket will be able to lift up to 4 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.
In 2021, the company plans to launch its two-stage Alpha rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch will cost $15 million and will deliver 1 ton of payload to a low Earth orbit. The debut of the Alpha rocket was originally scheduled for early 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Firefly Aerospace is legally an American company but 140 of its 310 employees work from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, 500 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
The company develops small and medium-sized rockets and satellites for making commercial launches into orbit.
Firefly was first known as Firefly Space Systems, but it was renamed after Polyakov bought the company in 2017.
