When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander during development and testing. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace) SpaceX and NASA are now targeting mid-January for the launch of the private moon lander "Blue Ghost." Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander is now scheduled to launch to the moon at 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT) on Wednesday, Jan. 15, taking off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, known as "Ghost Riders in the Sky," will see Blue Ghost will ride to space aboard SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. Livestream information has not yet been made available, but we will be tracking how to watch as NASA and SpaceX announce more details. Tagging along for the flight will be the Resilience moon lander built by Japanese firm ispace. The company previously attempted a moon landing with its Hakuto-R lander, which ultimately crashed into the lunar surface in April 2023. After launching, Blue Ghost will spend 25 days orbiting Earth before performing an engine burn to put it on a lunar transit trajectory that will take it to the moon. Once there, it will spend 16 days orbiting the moon while preparing for an autonomous landing on the surface. Its destination is Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"), a large basaltic plain some 460 miles wide (740 kilometers) formed by an ancient asteroid impact. Within 30 minutes of touching down, if all goes according to plan, the lander should begin transmitting its first high-definition images from the lunar surface. Blue Ghost will only have 14 days on the moon before lunar night falls, depleting the lander of its solar power source — although its batteries should give it about five hours of power to capture lunar dusk. The Ghost Riders in the Sky mission will last 60 days between launch and loss of power following sunset on the lunar surface. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace) Blue Ghost will carry 10 NASA-led science experiments and technology demonstrators to the lunar surface as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, or CLPS. Get the Space.com Newsletter