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The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) is a pathfinder which will study the Moon’s radio environment and potentially take a first look at a previously unobserved era in our cosmic history. It will use deployable antennas and radio receivers to observe sensitive radio waves from the Dark Ages for the first time.

LuSEE-Night, is a collaboration between the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory, and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. It is managed for NASA by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Read more...

UPDATE September 2023 - Firefly wins add-on NASA CLPS contract for unique Moon-based astronomy mission

Following a  to deliver an orbiter and two surface payloads to the Moon in 2026, Firefly has won an extended  as part of NASA’s  to provide frequency calibration services for the mission’s radio astronomy payload called . For this second CLPS mission from the company, Firefly will use a similar lander design as for its  in 2024 but also add an transfer stage to deliver the 280-kilogram  spacecraft for ESA to lunar orbit. Pathfinder is a stepping stone towards , ESA’s upcoming commercial navigation and communications constellation around Luna.

The Firefly lander itself will attempt a touchdown on the Moon’s farside carrying LuSEE-Night, which will push the boundaries of cosmology and lunarbound science by  from our Universe’s ‘Dark Age’—a slice of time right before the first stars were born. The lander will also host the “User Terminal” payload to enable LuSEE-Night to communicate to and from Earth via Lunar Pathfinder. Firefly’s Elytra stage, itself also remaining in lunar orbit thereafter, will provide radio frequency calibrations for LuSEE-Night while also serving as another communications relay for the lander.