Launches / Falcon 9 Block 5

Past launch Launched successfully

Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 1 & Hakuto-R M2 “Resilience”

Falcon 9 Block 5, flown by SpaceX

Falcon 9 Block 5 lifting off with the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 1 & Hakuto-R M2 “Resilience” mission
Image via The Space Devs.

This was SpaceX's 8th launch of 2025, and its 457th in all.

Counting every operator, it was the 10th orbital launch attempt anywhere in 2025, and the second from Launch Complex 39A.

Launched
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, 6:11 a.m. UTC
Window
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, 6:06 to 6:45 a.m. UTC
Launch site
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Rocket
Falcon 9 Block 5
Operator
SpaceX
Weather
90% favorableLiftoff winds, cumulus cloud rule

Watch the webcast →

The mission

Blue Ghost is a commercial lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace for NASA’s CLPS program. Blue Ghost is designed to bring up to 155kg of payload to the lunar surface. It will land at Mare Crisium in the Crisium Basin and is designed to last 14 days before freezing in the lunar night. Resilience is the second mission of the Hakuto-R commercial lunar lander developed by private Japanese company ispace. The lander will carry a small rover developed by ispace to perform studies on the moon's surface. The rover is also expected to collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA signed in 2020, in which companies will collect materials on the moon and then transfer ownership "in situ" to the agency.

Type
Lunar exploration
Destination
Lunar orbit

The rocket

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

Height
70 m
Built by
SpaceX
First flew
May 11, 2018
Lifts to low Earth orbit
22,800 kg
View 5 specifications Show less
Lifts to geostationary transfer
8,300 kg
Diameter
3.7 m
Mass at liftoff
549 t
Thrust at liftoff
7,607 kN
Stages
2

627 flights, 626 of them successful. 612 boosters brought back from 617 attempts.

spacex.com → Wikipedia →

The operator

SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

Sector
Commercial
Based in
USA
Founded
2002
Run by
Elon Musk, CEO

724 launches so far, 709 of them successful. The last 209 in a row went to plan.

spacex.com → Wikipedia →

The launch site

It went up from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA.

See the pad on a map →

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