NASA To Send Satellite To Far Side Of The Moon Through Contract With Firefly Aerospace

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected an aerospace firm in Texas to send equipment to the far side of the moon, the agency announced Wednesday.

As part of its $112 million contract, Firefly Aerospace, based in Cedar Park, will deliver three NASA payloads through a lander with a targeted launch date of 2026.

The robotic delivery will target a landing site on the far side of the moon, a place that permanently faces away from Earth, for two of the payloads, NASA said in a press release.

"Scientists consider this one of the best locations in the solar system for making radio observations shielded from the noise generated by our home planet," the space agency explained.

Meanwhile, the third payload, a satellite, will be launched into lunar orbit,

Among the three payloads is the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night, or LuSEE-Night.

This piece of equipment "aims to take advantage of this radio-quiet zone to make low-frequency astrophysics measurements of the cosmos – focusing on a time known as the 'Dark Ages,' a cosmic era that began some 370,000 years after the Big Bang and lasted until the first stars and galaxies formed," NASA explained.

Firefly Aerospace will also send a communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit called the Lunar Pathfinder, which is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, as well as a User Terminal that will be used to commission the Lunar Pathfinder and ensure its readiness to provide communications service to LuSEE-Night.

The company is required to provide communication services as there is no line of sight and no direct communication with Earth from the far side of the moon, according to NASA.

All three payloads are expected to weigh around 1,090 pounds in total.

Firefly Aerospace's delivery, which is being carried out through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), is part of the agency's Artemis program, or the mission to land the first woman and person of color on the moon.

This is reportedly the second contract awarded to Firefly Aerospace under the CLPS initiative and the ninth surface delivery task award issued to a vendor under the project.

"We look forward to Firefly providing this CLPS delivery," Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said.

"This lunar landing should enable new scientific discoveries from the far side of the Moon during the lunar night. This particular group of payloads should not only generate new science but should be a pathfinder for future investigations exploiting this unique vantage point in our solar system," he added.