Rocket Lab Space Software Supports Lunar Landing for Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 Mission
LONG BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, celebrated the successful Moon landing of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 on March 2 at 8:34 a.m. UTC (3:34 a.m. ET), supported by Rocket Lab’s MAX Flight and MAX Ground Data Software suites.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 lander is enabled by Rocket Lab’s MAX Flight and MAX Ground Data Software suite, a modular and autonomous proven flight software providing commanding, telemetry, autonomous sequencing, attitude determination, guidance, navigation, control, fault protection and more through all mission phases, including descent and landing.
Rocket Lab’s Mission Operations Center in Littleton, Colorado, served as a remote and backup operations center for Firefly’s Texas homebase. The Company’s spacecraft operations team worked alongside Firefly’s Blue Ghost operations team in both Colorado and Texas, performing orbit determination, planning maneuvers, generating commands, and monitoring the lander’s onboard guidance, navigation, and control system health throughout the orbital and landing phases of the mission.
Additionally, Rocket Lab provided three high-efficiency solar power assemblies, mounted on the lander’s sides and top deck, providing 400 W of power over the mission’s 1,470 operational hours.
Kyle Andringa, Rocket Lab’s Senior Director Space Systems Software, commented: “Congratulations to the Firefly team for the successful landing of the Blue Ghost 1 mission, a remarkable accomplishment achieved by few. Rocket Lab is honored to support this mission with our flight-proven space software and state-of-the-art components.”
Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission is advancing lunar science and exploration by delivering state-of-the-art instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
+ About Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier, and more affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, a family of spacecraft platforms, and the Company is developing the large Neutron launch vehicle for constellation deployment. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered more than 200 satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket Lab’s spacecraft platforms have been selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third launch pad in Virginia. To learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.
+ Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements regarding our launch and space systems operations, launch schedule and window, safe and repeatable access to space, Neutron development, operational expansion and business strategy are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “strategy,” “future,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “target,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, though not all forward-looking statements use these words or expressions. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the factors, risks and uncertainties included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of our website at www.rocketlabusa.com, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250303038729/en/
+ Rocket Lab Media Contact
Lindsay McLaurin
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: California United States North America
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Software Technology Aerospace Manufacturing
MEDIA:
| Logo |
 |