Firefly Aerospace ’s successful touchdown marks a new era of frequent commercial stumble to the Moon , paving the agency for a long - term human presence on the lunar surface . Before we get too ahead of ourselves , however , we ’ve got the on-going commission to take care to .
The Texas company ’s inaugural Blue Ghost missionary post , capably named “ Ghost Riders in the Sky,”pulled off a soft touchdown on the Moonon Sunday at 3:34 a.m. ET . Blue Ghostlaunched from Florida ’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday , January 15 , on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket . Texas - establish Firefly Aerospace became the 2d company to bring down on the Moon , and the first to do it with its lander ending up in an unsloped place ( Intuitive Machines’Odysseus lander slant over on its sideafter landing on the Moon in February 2024 ) .
“ Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon , ” Jason Kim , chief operating officer of Firefly Aerospace , state in astatement . “ Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar aerofoil . ” Blue Ghost land in Mare Crisium , the site of an ancient asteroid impact once filled with basaltic lava . The lander pulled off its preciseness landing place , touching down within the 328 - invertebrate foot ( 100 - meter ) target next to a volcanic feature call Mons Latreille , allot to Firefly Aerospace . The company successfully communicated with its lander follow touchdown .
The Blue Ghost lander pulled off a soft touchdown on the Moon.Firefly Aerospace
Now that the hard part is over , the stationary lander will drop a full lunar mean solar day ( or the combining weight of 14 days on ground ) exploring the stale surface of the Moon . Blue Ghost is pack with 10 NASA instruments designed to probe the lunar surface and conglomerate data to support future human missions to the Moon as part of NASA’sCommercial Lunar Payload Services(CLPS ) initiative . The NASA instrumental role are design to essay subsurface exercise on the Moon , regolith sampling assemblage , a planetary piloting satellite organisation , and lunar dust mitigation method , accord toNASA .
“ The science and applied science we mail to the Moon now assist set up the means for succeeding NASA geographic expedition and long - full term human bearing to revolutionize the mankind for generations to come , ” Nicky Fox , associate executive for science at NASA , say in a argument . “ We ’re sending these load by working with American companies — which supports a growing lunar saving . ”
Blue Ghost , in addition to stomach the NASA payload demos , will run through its own surface operations . The lander has a pile schedule of its own , with plan operations include lunar subsurface drilling , sampling collection , X - ray imagination , and dust mitigation experimentation , agree to Firefly .
Blue Ghost captured its first image of the Moon after touchdown. The image shows the Moon’s surface and a top-down view of the lander’s RCS thrusters (center) with a sun glare on the right side. Credit: Firefly Aerospace
On March 14 , Blue Ghost will attempt to capture high - definition imagery of a full eclipse from the Moon , with Earth wedging itself between the Sun and the Moon and close up the star ’s luminance above the horizon . Two days later , Blue Ghost will then attempt to beguile a sunset from the surface of the Moon and collect data on how lunar dust levitates due to influence from the Sun . After the Sun readiness , the lander will continue to click imaging of the levitating lunar dust to abide by how its behaviour changes after sundown .
Two Space Probes Are confront Serious issue Just Days After Launch
implausibly , two more individual lander are currently en itinerary to the Moon ( that ’s never happened before ) . The Japanese party ispace ’s Resilience lander hitched a ride on the same SpaceX rocket that launched Blue Ghost on its journey to the Moon . Resilience carry out a flyby of the Moon on February 15 , and it ’s gearing up for touchdown in April . Intuitive Machines ’ Athena landerblasted off on February 26and is scheduled to touch down on the Moon on Thursday , March 6 .
Blue Ghost captured its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home. Credit: Firefly Aerospace
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