My time at:
Spacecraft: (September 2024 - March 2025)
Blue Ghost is Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander, contracted through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Essentially, other organizations and institutions need their equipment on the moon, and we deliver it there with our Blue Ghost vehicle.
Blue Ghost is Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander, contracted through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Essentially, other organizations and institutions need their equipment on the moon, and we deliver it there with our Blue Ghost vehicle.
My position at Firefly was as an Assembly, Integration, and Test Engineer II for the Blue Ghost program. Which made me one of only four integration engineers and technicians working on the vehicle.
And what a fantastic team of people I had the privelege of working with!
Right when I joined the company, our first lander (BGM1) returned from environmental testing at JPL. So my main responsibilities were post-test refurbishment, rework, and repair; getting our baby Blue ready for her launch.
Right when I joined the company, our first lander (BGM1) returned from environmental testing at JPL. So my main responsibilities were post-test refurbishment, rework, and repair; getting our baby Blue ready for her launch.
From September to January, I integrated thrusters, antennae, MLI (Multi-Layer Insulation), and more. I repaired the spacecraft radiator panels, solar arrays, plumbing lines, and attachment points. I was also a part of lift and lander transport operations, solar panel and power system functional tests, and fluid line flushes.
On January 15, 2025, Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station LC-39A on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. On March 2, 2025, she landed in Mare Crisium on the Moon. On March 16, 2025, her mission concluded, a complete success.
Vehicle separation.
Blue Ghost meets Blue Marble.
Far from home.
Once BGM1 lifted off, my focus shifted immediately to BGM2. I owned and drafted all assembly/integration procedures for the Mission 2 lander vehicle. The mission profile for Mission 2 involved two vehicles (lander and transport) so we divided and conquered.
Throughout my whole tenure at Firefly, I also took on a series of pet projects focused around process improvement. This included a rebuild of the integration toolboxes with a python script for tool checkouts and calibration tracking, a Remove-Before-Flight "toolbox" shadowed to physically track ALL RBF hardware, a consumables kanban, and my personal pride and joy: the SCADA system.
I developed a environmental monitoring system which would continuously track and report the temperature, humidity, oxygen concentration, and particle count of the climate in the cleanroom. This suite came equipped with full data history, personalized alarms for when the parameters approached noncompliance, and an HMI for easy understanding and constant user awareness.
Blue Ghost is the most incredible project I've been a part of thus far, and with a fantastic team to boot. I'm proud to have been a part of such a monumental human achievement.
Blue Ghost also marks the first industry project I've worked on that has no involvement from the U.S. Military. Though perhaps unremarkable to most, I consider this a formative milestone in my career.
Around the time Blue Ghost Mission 1 concluded, my projects were all either completed or entering review, and we had not yet begun assembly for the 2nd mission. It was time for me to move on to a new adventure.
"Monument Mode."
Organizations:
