For the second time in history, a private mission delivered cargo to the Moon — the Blue Ghost spacecraft made an almost perfect landing.
The last maneuvers before landing on the satellite lasted about an hour. On March 2, at 09:30 Kyiv time, the spacecraft switched on a special mode to enter orbit and descended smoothly to the Moon for almost 100 km. A few kilometers before the surface, Blue Ghost activated its engines to slow down the descent and smoothly take the correct position.
Thanks to its small corrective engines, the probe avoided large rocks. At 10:34 a.m. Kyiv time, Blue Ghost chose the best place to land in the area of the huge depression «Mare Crisium» and made a historic landing on the lunar soil.
«Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed. We’ve got some moon dust on our boots!» — says Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly.
Three days before the lunar landing low «passed» over the Moon, and the shot captured the sunrise of the Earth. At the time, its operator, the private American company Firefly Aerospace, was making final preparations for landing.
«I would say we had no idea we were going to get the imagery back that we’ve been getting. Those are not, like, planned passes that the marketing team dictated. We just started turning on all the cameras during every maneuver», — says Ray Allensworth, Firefly spacecraft program director.
The incredibly soft and successful landing allowed for the delivery of 10 NASA scientific instruments without any problems. Scientists will be able to successfully investigate the level of radiation on the Moon and test new methods of sample collection. In addition, the Blue Ghost landing experience will be useful for preparing future Artemis program missions to bring people to the Moon.
Blue Ghost will operate on the moon for about two weeks. On Earth, the Sun rises and sets every 12 hours, but on the Moon, it’s different. One lunar day lasts almost 30 Earth days. That is, when the Sun rises there, it does not set for 14 days.
Also, the most anticipated moment is the image of the eclipse on March 14. Unlike a terrestrial eclipse, when the Moon covers the Sun, it will be the other way around — the Earth will cover the Sun for the Blue Ghost spacecraft, which is on the Moon. The rare phenomenon will look entirely different on the Moon than on Earth.
In total, NASA has allocated $93 million to Firefly Aerospace under the contract for the «Ghost Riders in the Sky» mission. But the successful delivery of the cargo required additional funds — the total amount increased to $101.5 million. The Blue Ghost landing experience was a huge step forward for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program
Under this initiative, the agency partners with private companies to deliver scientific experiments to the Moon..
Firefly Aerospace is not the first private company to reach the moon. In February 2024 Odysseus spacecraft from Intuitive Machines has landed to the moon, although at the time the team reported on problems with the switch. The mission was on the verge of collapse, but was saved by luck and skill.
The Israeli mission Beresheet tried to do this in 2019, but failed. But, perhaps, after the crash, the Earth’s silent ones survived there that will help restore earthly life.
By the way, Blue Ghost did not get there on its own. It was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 15. Along with it, another private probe — Resilience from the Japanese company ispace went to the lunar surface.
Source: Space.com
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