Firefly Aerospace’s successful touchdown marks a new era of frequent commercial trips to the Moon, paving the way for a long-term human presence on the lunar surface. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, however, we’ve got the ongoing mission to attend to.

The landing precedes by just four days the planned arrival of a second uncrewed American spacecraft built and operated by Intuitive Machines. The space exploration company, also based in Texas, etched its name in the history books a year ago when its spacecraft,

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side. Confirmation of touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin,