India, March 2 -- US-based Firefly Aerospace landed its Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the near side of the Moon on Sunday, March 2, 2025. The Blue Ghost lander landed at Mare Crisium, a flat plain formed from lava that filled and hardened inside a 345-mile-wide crater carved by an ancient asteroid impact.

The mission is part of US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

NASA had awarded Firefly a contract worth $93.3 million to deliver a total of 10 NASA-sponsored science and technology demonstration payloads to the Moon.

According to a report in The New York Times, NASA will pay $101.5 million to Firefly if all 10 payloads reach the lunar surface safely and a little less i...