The American company Firefly, formerly co-owned by Ukrainian Maxym Polyakov, became the first commercial company in history to successfully complete a full lunar landing.

The company announced this on its social media.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost unmanned spacecraft has successfully landed on the lunar surface in the Mare Crisium region. It took Blue Ghost 45 days to reach the lunar surface.

About 40 minutes after landing, Blue Ghost sent the first image from the lunar surface to Earth.

The Blue Ghost M1 mission is part of NASA’s Artemis program and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which involves private space companies providing lunar exploration equipment.

The spacecraft carries 10 instruments provided by NASA. The company expects the scientific instruments to operate for one lunar day, about 14 Earth days, until the onset of a cold lunar night when their power is exhausted.

Firefly Aerospace became the second private company to land on the moon after Intuitive Machines, whose IM-1 spacecraft touched down in February 2024. However, during the landing, the spacecraft rolled over on its side, and although it retained communication with the mission control center, its functionality was limited.

Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace was created on the basis of Firefly Space Systems, which was bought out and relaunched in 2017 by Ukrainian entrepreneur and founder of Noosphere Ventures Maxym Polyakov.

In Dnipro, the company had its own R&D center and a workshop for the experimental production of small rocket assemblies with subsequent laboratory testing.

However, at the end of November 2021, Polyakov received a letter from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States about national security concerns.

U.S. government and aerospace industry representatives opposed Polyakov’s control of Firefly Aerospace. They feared that valuable technology could end up in Ukraine, Russia, or other countries trying to develop missile programs.

“I’m giving away my 58% stake in Firefly Aerospace for $1 to co-founder and partner Tom. Dear US Committee on Foreign Investment, the US Air Force, and 23 other US agencies that betrayed me and condemned me for my actions in the last 15 months – I hope you are happy. History will judge all of you guys. Yes, I have a Ukrainian passport, and I am the founder of Firefly! Bye my “bird” and at the end of the day, I am proud of what I did for my Land, soul, and heritage!” Maksym Polyakov wrote on February 17, 2022.