Landing on the Moon is no easy feat; the lunar surface has become a graveyard for far too many missions that came to untimely ends. But Firefly’s Blue Ghost conquered the lunar surface a few days ago, and is now standing tall on the Moon. Landing on the Moon never looked so good, with Blue Ghost capturing incredible footage of its historic touchdown with a cinematic finale that’s fitting for its name.
Firefly’s first mission to the Moon touched down on the lunar surface on Sunday at 3:34 a.m. ET. The Texas-based company released a clip of Blue Ghost’s descent toward the Moon followed by a smooth landing. The footage is a masterclass in lunar landings, capturing striking views of the lander emerging from a cloud of dust, its shadow stretching across the Moon’s surface in a superhero-like stance.
The nearly 3-minute video captures Blue Ghost as it gently makes its way down toward the Moon, gliding across the cratered, dark grey surface with its shiny, metallic wings. The video also includes hauntingly beautiful views of the Moon, with the Sun casting its light across the horizon.
As Blue Ghost finally settles in on its designated landing spot, it kicks up a cloud of dust before settling onto the regolith. The lander casts its shadow across the lunar surface, appearing as a well-defined silhouette once the dust settles. The image of Blue Ghost’s shadow is a reflection of the mission, which is set to pave the way for more commercial landers hoping to snag their own spot on the Moon.
The mission, aptly named “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” touched down in Mare Crisium, a large impact site filled with basaltic lava on the Moon. Blue Ghost pulled off a precision landing, touching down within a 328-foot (100-meter) target next to a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille.
Since landing on the Moon, Blue Ghost has kicked off its surface operations, deploying its payloads, sampling lunar regolith, and capturing images. The stationary lander will spend a full lunar day (or the equivalent of 14 days on Earth) analyzing the Moon’s dusty surface. Blue Ghost is also packed with 10 NASA instruments designed to probe the lunar surface and gather data to support future human missions to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The NASA instruments are designed to test subsurface drilling on the Moon, regolith sample collection, satellite navigation technology, and lunar dust mitigation methods, according to NASA.
Blue Ghost launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, January 15, on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. With its cinematic landing, Firefly Aerospace became the second private company to land on the Moon, and the first to land with its spacecraft remaining upright (Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander tipped over on its side after landing on the Moon in February 2024).
We can’t wait to see more of Blue Ghost’s journey unfold on the lunar surface.
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