Two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Japan’s ispace’s Resilience, launched on January 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Blue Ghost, part of NASA’s CLPS program, is carrying 10 research payloads and will spend 25 days in Earth orbit before heading to the moon for a touchdown in Mare Crisium.

Resilience, with a microrover named Tenacious, is taking a more energy-efficient route and will land in Mare Frigoris in about four and a half months, Space.com has reported.

The missions kick off a busy year of moon exploration, with several other lunar landings planned.

Written by B.C. Begley