Firefly wins $75M subcontract to deliver drones to Moon’s south pole

Firefly Aerospace has been awarded a USD 75 million subcontract from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to deliver four drones to the Moon’s south pole in support of the agency’s MoonFall mission, targeted to launch no earlier than 2028, the US company announced. 

MoonFall is part of the first phase of NASA’s Moon Base, a long-term lunar exploration and infrastructure initiative designed to enable sustained human presence and expanded scientific and commercial activity at the lunar south pole.

“This subcontract underscores our commitment to executing challenging missions that push the boundaries of lunar exploration,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Built upon the same proven systems that landed Blue Ghost on the Moon, our Elytra spacecraft are equipped to deploy critical high-mass payloads across cislunar space.”

JPL is building the drones and managing the mission for NASA, which will source the launch vehicle for MoonFall. Upon launching, Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft will carry the drones over a 45-day transit to the Moon and enter lunar orbit before deorbiting and performing a braking maneuver to deploy the drones approximately 50 km above the Moon’s south pole, Firefly said.

The MoonFall drones will then land and operate over the course of a single lunar day (up to 14 Earth days) to survey the lunar south pole terrain, including permanently shadowed regions, with high-definition optical cameras and instruments.  

“As NASA accelerates its Moon Base initiatives, Firefly is rapidly scaling spacecraft production to support these missions and subsequent Blue Ghost lunar landings,” said Ray Allensworth, Vice President of Spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace.