Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has successfully touched down on the Moon, making it only the second privately built spacecraft to achieve this milestone. The Texas-based company developed the robotic lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, supporting the Artemis program aimed at returning humans to the Moon.

Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Blue Ghost spent two weeks orbiting before its hour-long descent to the lunar surface, landing this morning at 3:36 a.m. ET. The control room in Austin, Texas, erupted in celebration, marking another step in the growing private-sector involvement in lunar exploration.

The lander is carrying 10 NASA science instruments to study the Moon’s surface and interior. Among its tasks, it will:

• Probe the Moon’s interior up to 700 miles deep.
• Capture X-ray images of Earth’s magnetic field interactions.
• Analyze lunar soil and dust adhesion.
• Use lasers to measure Earth-Moon distance.

While in orbit, Blue Ghost also captured stunning imagery of the Moon’s south pole and far side, providing valuable data for future missions.

This landing follows Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus mission in February 2024 and kicks off a wave of lunar expeditions. Another Intuitive Machines lander is set to land around March 6, while a Japanese ispace lander, launched alongside Blue Ghost, is on a longer trajectory, arriving in May or June.

NASA awarded Firefly $101.5 million for this mission, reinforcing private-sector contributions to lunar exploration and future human landings.

Source:  NBC News

Check out the video of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, which captures stunning 10x-speed footage of the Moon’s far side and its thruster maneuvers from 100 km above the surface. Stunning.

This video image of our home from the moon never gets old.  I have a framed print of Earthrise above my desk, which was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders.