*

Firefly Aerospace scores lunar touchdown with Blue Ghost

lander

*

Moon landing marks company's first, second for a private

firm

*

Firefly one of many companies in modern moon race led by

US,

China

(Updates with touchdown)

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - Firefly Aerospace became

the second U.S. company to land on the moon on Sunday with its

debut Blue Ghost lander, kicking off a two-week research mission

as one of a handful of private firms to reach the frontlines of

a global moon race.

The size of a compact car, the four-legged Blue Ghost

carried 10 scientific payloads as it touched down at 3:35am ET

near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in

the northeast corner of the moon's Earth-facing side.

Flight controllers at Firefly's Austin, Texas headquarters

watched as Blue Ghost descended toward the moon's surface at a

gentle two miles per hour, confirming on a live stream that the

spacecraft had entered lunar gravity.

"We're on the moon," a company official in mission control

declared.

Firefly became the second private firm to score a soft moon

landing. Houston-based Intuitive Machines' ( LUNR ) Odysseus

lander made a lopsided soft touchdown last year. Five nations

have made successful soft landings in the past - the then-Soviet

Union, the U.S., China, India and, last year, Japan.

Flight controllers at Firefly's Austin, Texas, headquarters

had sent final commands to Blue Ghost as it lowered its lunar

orbit, flying about 238,000 miles (383,000 km) from Earth a

month and a half after launching atop a SpaceX rocket from

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.