[Image: Firefly Aerospace / Facebook]
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander nailed its first lunar landing attempt on Sunday, setting down close to Mons Latreille, a lunar peak in the vast basin Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) in the northeastern region of the moon’s near side.
Firefly Aerospace employees gathered at a watch party, anxiously watching a livestream as Firefly’s lunar lander slowly inched toward the moon’s surface to become the second private lander to soft-land on the moon.
The Blue Ghost mission will also lay some of the groundwork for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon by mid-2027.
With not much time to spare, the spacecraft immediately got to work, starting up its science payloads and capturing amazing images of its surroundings and the distant Earth from the lunar surface.
Since its successful landing, the little lander has been sending back some awesome images and video, including this shot of a sunrise on the moon.
Rise and shine! Firefly’s #BlueGhost lander captured its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home. Our #GhostRiders have already begun operating many of the 10 @NASA payloads aboard the lander and will… pic.twitter.com/YI9nuFZfmk
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 3, 2025
Firefly said the lander will continue operations for the next two weeks and into the lunar night, when the solar-powered mission is set to conclude.
[Source: Texas Standard]
