NASA’s Blue Ghost spacecraft has recorded unique footage of the lunar surface as it prepares for its first lunar landing attempt, scheduled for this weekend.
Blue Ghost is expected to make its first lunar landing on Sunday, March 2. In anticipation of this historic moment, it captured unique close-ups of the lunar surface. In the amazing video, you can see how the distant Earth rises and falls behind the curve of the lunar horizon.
This time-lapse video, shot on February 18, shows the stunning view from the Blue Ghost lander as it made its second orbital pass around the Moon, at an altitude of approximately 120 km from its surface.
The footage shows a view from Blue Ghost of the lunar surface, dotted with deep craters. The distant Earth and the bright Sun can be seen in the background, which creates a backlighting effect on the lens.
«Earthrise, Earthset, repeat!» — Firefly Aerospace wrote in the video caption.
Earth rise, Earth set, repeat! Blue Ghost's third and final lunar orbit maneuver is complete! Early this morning, our #GhostRiders performed a 16-second burn with our RCS thrusters to enter a near-circular low lunar orbit. Up next, we'll perform a 19-second Descent Orbit… pic.twitter.com/B8ptv1D0yv
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) February 24, 2025
The spacecraft has now completed three laps in orbit, and its operator, the private American company Firefly Aerospace, is now making final preparations for landing.
«Early this morning, our GhostRiders team performed a 16-second RCS engine ignition to enter a near-circular low lunar orbit. Next, we will perform a 19-second descent orbit insertion maneuver at 100 km altitude at the perilunium point to begin our descent to Blue Ghost’s final destination, the Sea of Crises, on March 2,» the company said in a statement.
If Blue Ghost successfully lands, it will be the first spacecraft to photograph the sunset from the lunar surface.
On Earth, we are used to the fact that the Sun rises and sets again about 12 hours later. However, on the Moon, sunrise and sunset occur in a completely different way: one lunar day lasts about 29.5 Earth days (this is how long it takes the Moon to make a complete revolution around its axis).
This means that when the Sun rises on the Moon, it does not set again for the next 14 Earth days.
During the Apollo missions, NASA timed the landing so that the astronauts would land at the beginning of this two-week «light window», giving them enough time to perform scientific research.
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