With its Blue Ghost lunar module, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has simply achieved what no different personal firm, wherever on the planet, has ever achieved: efficiently touchdown on the floor of the moon.
Having launched in January, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at Mare Crisium, within the neighborhood of a mountain referred to as Mons Latreille, at 3:34 am Japanese Time on Sunday March 2. NASA studies that the Blue Ghost lander is in a secure, vertical place.
“This incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and US companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all,” Janet Petro, NASA’s appearing administrator, stated in a assertion on March 2. “We have already learned many lessons, and the technology and science demonstrations aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 Mission will enhance our ability to not only discover more science but also to ensure the safety of the instruments on our spacecraft for future human exploration, both near and long term.”
Blue Ghost shouldn’t be the primary privately led mission to achieve the lunar floor. That honor goes to Intuitive Machines, one other Texas-based firm, which tried to land on the moon in February 2024; nonetheless, its module fell onto its facet on the floor and ceased to be operational. (Intuitive Machines will get one other probability on March 6, with its Athena lunar module, which launched final month.) Different corporations have additionally tried, however their spacecraft ended up crashing.
Firefly’s lander nonetheless has loads of work forward of it. The Blue Ghost module is carrying 10 science and expertise devices for NASA, which can function on the floor for one lunar day, the equal of 14 days on Earth. As a part of the NASA’s Artemis program, which can return people to the lunar floor for the primary time since 1972, Blue Ghost’s mission goals to study extra concerning the lunar surroundings, to help astronauts in future explorations of the moon and Mars. Moments after landing, the module captured its first photographs, which had been shared by NASA and Firefly on their official accounts.
