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JAN. 15 UPDATE: Blue Ghost, the lunar lander from Central Texas space firm Firefly Aerospace, is on its way to the moon after a successful NASA launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center just after midnight Wednesday. The lander is now on a 45-day journey to the moon’s surface and should arrive by March 2.

Firefly is headquartered in Cedar Park but has a 200-acre testing and manufacturing site in northeast Burnet County in the community of Briggs.

Blue Ghost was launched using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry it to its destination during Firefly’s first lunar mission for NASA titled ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky.’ The image shown here, courtesy of SpaceX, is a screenshot of the livestreamed mission from early Wednesday morning.

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Firefly Aerospace lunar lander Blue Ghost
Blue Ghost, a lunar lander produced by Central Texas space firm Firefly Aerospace, prepares to be encapsulated in a rocket fairing before being launched to the moon’s surface. Photo courtesy of Firefly Aerospace

Central Texas commercial space firm Firefly Aerospace launches its first lunar lander in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Jan. 15. The mission is years in the making and could be one of many for the firm, which has a large manufacturing and testing site in rural Burnet County.

The launch is set for 1:11 a.m. EST (12:11 CST) Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Firefly’s lunar lander, Blue Ghost, will be transported to the moon’s surface by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of a series of commercial payload delivery missions for NASA

The entire trip will take about 45 days. The lander will spend a full lunar day (about 14 Earth days) on the moon’s surface to collect data with a suite of scientific instruments provided by NASA, several universities, and other technology firms.

The launch and pre-launch coverage will be livestreamed on Firefly’s Youtube channel starting at 11:30 p.m. local time Tuesday.

The “Ghost Riders in the Sky” mission is the first one that Firefly will carry out for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which seeks to develop and streamline consistent travel and transportation between Earth and the moon.

dakota@thepicayune.com