Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, originally scheduled to lift off in late 2024, is on its maiden voyage. The uncrewed spacecraft is expected to travel for 45 days before trying to touch down in early March. Its flight is the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission of the year .

Two robotic landers are set to begin their journeys to the moon Wednesday morning, when they launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Firefly's "Blue Moon" and ispace's "Resilience" are the latest in an ongoing push to gain private-sector experience exploring the moon.

The mission, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 1:11 a.m. ET. Blue Ghost separated from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:17 a.m. ET and established communications with Firefly's Mission Operations Center in Cedar Park, Texas, at 2:26 a.m. ET.

Robotic vehicles from Firefly Aerospace of Texas and Ispace of Japan parted ways early Wednesday after being launched on the same SpaceX rocket. Both are aiming for the lunar surface.

They are the latest in a growing number of commercial missions to the Moon. Firefly's rover, Blue Ghost, is expected to take about 45 days to reach the Moon, once it has separated from the SpaceX rocket.

A SpaceX rocket set to launch overnight will carry two lunar landers, one from Austin-based Firefly Aerospace and one from Japan’s ispace.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched lunar landers for Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese company ispace early this morning (Jan. 15).

A SpaceX rocket carrying two commercial lunar landers took off toward space early Wednesday morning in another step toward an era of private moon exploration. This carpool to the moon carried Blue Ghost,