The U.S. private spacecraft ‘Blue Ghost’ has successfully landed on the Moon. The landing took place on Sunday, February 2, at 3:34 AM Eastern Time.
The mission, named ‘Blue Ghost Mission-1,’ was conducted by Firefly Aerospace, a U.S.-based private company. This marks only the second successful private lunar landing. The first attempt by another company, Intuitive Machines, in February last year, ended in failure as their spacecraft crashed upon landing.
Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim confirmed the successful landing of Blue Ghost, stating that the spacecraft landed intact and on target. Project manager Ray Allensworth added that the spacecraft managed to land within 100 meters of its designated target.
The mission is part of a broader initiative by NASA to collaborate with private companies to reduce costs for the Artemis mission, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 11.
On January 15, Blue Ghost was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, carrying 10 scientific instruments for NASA. These include a vacuum device for collecting lunar dust and a tool for measuring temperatures up to 10 feet beneath the lunar surface.
The four-legged spacecraft, roughly the size of a compact car, traveled 2.8 million miles to reach the Moon. Along the way, it captured remarkable images. If all goes well, on March 14, Blue Ghost will record high-definition images of a total lunar eclipse, followed by footage of a lunar sunset on March 16.
Scientists hope to study how lunar dust reacts to solar energy by observing how it moves on the surface.
Currently, five countries—the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan—have successfully landed spacecraft on the Moon.