The late private lunar lander is a little closer to its destination . Firefly Aerospace ’s Blue Ghost fired its engines betimes in the morning of February 18 , mark the latest stage in its 45 - mean solar day foresightful trip-up to the Moon .
The engine sunburn , which started at 3:09 a.m. ET and lasted three moment and 18 seconds , go the lander , which had been in a high-pitched elliptical orbit around the Moon since February 13 , into a miserable orbit . From its fresh vantage item 75 stat mi ( 120 kilometers ) above the surface , Blue Ghost was able-bodied to capture new imaging of the far side of the Moon and relay it back to Earth .
Our#GhostRiderscompleted another lunar orbit maneuver with a 3 hour , 18 second burn early this morning . This maneuver moved the lander from a gamey oviform orbit to a much lower oval-shaped reach around the Moon . short after the sunburn , Blue Ghost capture unbelievable footage…pic.twitter.com/ygyMVpaBW4
Firefly’s Blue Ghost entered a lower elliptical orbit around the Moon.© Firefly Aerospace
— Firefly Aerospace ( @Firefly_Space)February 18 , 2025
While necessary to get Blue Ghost ready for its planned March 2 landing attempt , the variety does add up with a downside , as there will be periods of temporary communication blackouts between the workmanship and its caretaker at the Texas - based Firefly .
The 45 - day itinerary between planetary spoof and lunar touchdown also appropriate Blue Ghost ’s coach to calibrate the onboard musical instrument . If all give out as planned , Blue Ghost will settle into its new domicile in an area of the Moon known as Mare Crisium , or Sea of Crises . The basin was organize by an ancient asteroid hit , and was once fill with basaltic lava . The lander ’s 10 instruments will be put to work analyzing oestrus catamenia from the Moon ’s midland , magnetic and electric domain on the aerofoil , and the chemical composition of lunar soil . The mission will also test technology that could play a part in NASA ’s Artemis missions , which are direct at put human boots on the Moon for the first sentence since 1972 .
Blue Ghost’s vacation selfies are better than your vacation selfies. © Firefly Aerospace
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Blue Ghost has taken a passably circuitous road on its journeying to the lunar surface . Rather than a straight shot from the Kennedy Space Center to the Moon , its journey admit several weeks in orbit around Earth take after its January 15 launching . During that time , its tv camera caught somespectacular shots of our major planet , even taking a selfie or two .
Blue Ghost is just the latest private lander to attempt a Moon landing place , though results have been mixed on that front . In April 2023 , Nipponese company ispace ’s Hakuto - R M1 lander crashed whileattempting its touchdown .
Astrobotic ’s peregrine falcon , the first private American attempt at a landing , also did n’t fare well , stand acatastrophic failureshortly after set in motion in January 2024 . Just over a month after , Intuitive Machine ’s Odysseussucceeded where Peregrine failed , though it suffer a rugged leg thatleft it lopsidedon the Moon .
Should Blue Ghost land safely , it ’ll have some new troupe in short order . ispace is examine its luck again with its Resilience lander , launch on the same Falcon 9 rocketas Blue Ghost . That ballistic capsule has taken a tedious feeler to the Moon , and will seek a landing place sometime in May or June . Aboard the lander is the Tenacious rover , which will hopefully be used to try the lunar soil around Resilience ’s planned landing spot on the Moon ’s far north .
If that ’s not enough Moon exploration for you , Intuitive Machines also has another missionary post which could launch as before long as next week . That charge will admit a robot plan tohop across the surfaceto explore a crater that ’s in a permanent shadow .
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