The spacecraft built and operated by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace launched in the early Monday hours from Florida aboard a SpaceX rocket.

In a groundbreaking effort to enhance lunar exploration, NASA has launched the Blue Ghost Mission 1, featuring a suite of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations aboard a Firefly Aerospace spacecraft.

The Firefly Aerospace Ghost Riders in the Sky mission took off on January 15, sending a Blue Ghost lander with ten science instruments to the Moon.

The Austin-area space firm’s Blue Ghost mission will gather more information about deep space and lunar environments for eventual crewed missions.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander launched at 1:11 a.m. Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the SpaceX rocket before separating an hour later. The lunar lander — part of a mission known as Blue Ghost Mission 1 or Ghost Riders in the Sky — will spend 45 days in orbit and 14 days on the surface of the moon.

NASA's Blue Ghost lunar lander is on its way to the moon, soaring through space with a tiny lunar rover called Tenacious. "After all the testing conducted and mission simulations completed, we're now fully focused on execution as we look to complete our on-orbit operations,

In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX launched a pair of lunar landers Wednesday for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business on Earth's dusty sidekick.