NASA's Moon Exploration Charges Will Be Launched On January 15

Illustration of the Blue Ghost spacecraft for the CLPS mission (photo: dock. Firefly Aerospace)

JAKARTA The launch schedule for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative is now revealed. Through a post on X, Firefly Aerospace said that its aircraft will fly on January 15.

"Our land trip to the Moon will begin at 1:11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, January 15, (using) the Falcon 9 rocket," Firefly said on Tuesday, January 7. "We will collect important data for NASA's payloads and future missions."

NASA does use Firefly's Blue Ghost vehicle to deliver payloads to the Moon. However, Blue Ghost is not the only vehicle the agency uses. There are still other rides belonging to the Japanese company, namely Resilience.

These two rides will be launched using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Blue Ghost and Resilience will travel for 45 days to reach the Moon. After landing, the two will explore the Moon for 14 days.

NASA once revealed that the Blue Ghost ride will carry ten payloads. All of these technologies will be used to measure the composition of particulates, thermal properties, and electromagnetic activity on the Moon.

Blue Ghost will also land a payload specifically designed to observe Earth's magnetic field from afar. This payload is named LEXI, abbreviation of the Heliospheric X-ray Imager Lunar Environment Instrument.

As an X-ray engine, LEXI will monitor the interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. By monitoring this interaction, NASA can detect and track the solar weather pattern more accurately.