A second American company has landed a spacecraft on the moon in an extraordinary feat once solely the realm of government space agencies like NASA.
The uncrewed lander, named Blue Ghost, made its touch down early Sunday on the lunar surface after more than six weeks voyaging millions of miles through the cosmos. Firefly Aerospace, the Texas-based company that built and is operating the spacecraft, was hired by NASA to carry a fleet of scientific instruments to the moon to study its environment ahead of plans for astronauts to return in the years ahead.
“This incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and American companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all,” NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro said in a release. “We have already learned many lessons – and the technological and science demonstrations onboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 will improve our ability to not only discover more science, but to ensure the safety of our spacecraft instruments for future human exploration – both in the short term and long term.”
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, Odysseus, became the first commercially-built lunar lander in the U.S. to ever make it to the moon.
Intuitive Machines’ second lander, Athena, is targeting a Thursday, March 6 touchdown on the lunar south pole following a Feb. 26 launch from Florida.
Were astronauts to step foot on the moon as early as 2027 under NASA’s Artemis campaign, they’d be the first Americans to do so in five decades since the space agency’s Apollo era came to an end in the 1970s.
But as nostalgic as humanity’s return to the moon would be, NASA’s lunar interests are far from being merely sentimental. Once astronauts can return to the moon – and uncrewed landers like Blue Ghost and Athena are considered vital in laying that groundwork – they’d then fuel up and prepare to continue onward to Mars.
Firefly Aerospace lands Blue Ghost spacecraft on moon
After spending more than two weeks in lunar orbit, the Blue Ghost lander, standing more than 6 feet tall, took about an hour to descend in the early Sunday hours. The landing, which NASA and Firefly both livestreamed, concluded by 3:45 a.m. EST.
Powered by three solar panels, the spacecraft was designed to stick the landing with shock-absorbing feet, a low center of mass and a wide footprint, according to Firefly Aerospace.
The landing site is near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille. The region is located within Mare Crisium, a 300-mile-wide basin in the northeast quadrant of the moon’s near side, that is believed to have been created by early volcanic eruptions and flooded with basaltic lava more than 3 billion years ago.
Lunar landing comes after 45-day trip through space
Blue Ghost hitched a ride Jan. 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the historic launch pad 39A – the site of the space agency’s Apollo moon mission launches.
Firefly Aerospace has since been regularly providing online updates on the mission, which it’s dubbed Ghost Riders in the Sky after the popular country song. Among those updates are many stunning images and videos Firefly has shared that the lander captured throughout its 45-day expedition.
On Jan. 27, Blue Ghost captured the first images of the moon in the distance days after it fired its engines in a critical burn to raise its apogee – the point when it is furthest from Earth in its orbit of the planet – as it prepared to enter the moon’s orbit.
The lander also observed and documented the Earth eclipsing the moon – from its vantage, at least – and on Feb. 3 beamed back an incredible “selfie” with Earth in the background.
Blue Ghost then captured some striking images of the moon shortly after it entered lunar orbit Feb. 13.
Last week, Blue Ghost got a look of the moon’s far side, an area not visible to Earth, that shows our planet rising and setting behind our celestial neighbor. Firefly Aerospace shared the imagery following Blue Ghost’s maneuvers to get the spacecraft closer and closer to the lunar surface ahead of the landing.
What’s next for Blue Ghost lunar lander?
Firefly Aerospace’s spacecraft is on a mission to deliver and help test a fleet of NASA’s scientific instruments to study the moon’s environment before humans return.
The 10 instruments Blue Ghost transported to the moon constitute what NASA said is the largest delivery to date under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS. The CLPS program allows the U.S. space agency to find lower-cost methods to finance lunar deliveries without having to develop spacecraft of its own, as it historically has done.
The technology will next be put to use for a complete lunar day, equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
The instruments Blue Ghost carries, many of which were tested in transit to the moon, are for things like lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging and dust mitigation. The data NASA hopes to collect should also provide insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces affect Earth.
Additionally, Blue Ghost plans to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse as the Earth blocks the sun just before a lunar sunset ushers in frigid lunar night a couple days later. The total lunar eclipse will be visible to millions from Earth on March 13-14.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
