Rocket Lab Space Software Supports Lunar Landing for Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 Mission
March 03 2025 - 7:00AM
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.
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+ Rocket Lab Media Contact Lindsay McLaurin
media@rocketlabusa.com
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