Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 Successfully Lands on the Moon

An American startup’s robotic spacecraft successfully landed on the moon’s near side early on Sunday morning. The Blue Ghost lander, created by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, touched down at 3:34 a.m. Eastern time. “You all stuck the landing,” exclaimed Will Coogan, the Blue Ghost chief engineer, during a livestream from the flight operations room. “We’re on the moon.” This achievement marked a significant success for the company, surpassing the efforts of many others. “We got some moon dust on our boots,” added Jason Kim, the chief executive of Firefly.

In the 21st century, various countries, companies, and organizations have attempted soft landings on the moon, with only China achieving complete success on the first try. Other attempts from India, Russia, an Israeli nonprofit, and a Japanese company resulted in crashes and new craters on the lunar surface.

Last year, two landers sent by JAXA, the Japanese space agency, and Intuitive Machines of Houston successfully landed on the moon but toppled over, limiting their functionality. Intuitive Machines was the first private company to achieve a successful moon landing, with Firefly now being the second. Ray Allensworth, leading the Blue Ghost program at Firefly, mentioned benefiting from data provided by previous lunar missions to enhance their navigation software and avoid potential pitfalls.

Firefly’s utilization of existing data allowed them to fine-tune their navigation software and potentially prevent issues encountered in previous missions. The Blue Ghost mission landed in Mare Crisium, a flat plain in the northeast quadrant of the moon’s near side, inside a large crater formed by an ancient asteroid impact.

The lander is carrying various scientific and experimental payloads to the lunar surface, including equipment for NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS). If all 10 payloads successfully reach the lunar surface, NASA will pay Firefly $101.5 million for their services.

The Blue Ghost lander’s landing time was determined by the physics of its trajectory to ensure arrival during a new lunar day for optimal solar panel power generation. The mission aims to last approximately 14 Earth days until lunar sunset.

Blue Ghost has maintained nearly flawless performance throughout its journey. After circling Earth for 25 days to check systems, the spacecraft began its journey towards the moon, entering orbit on Feb. 13. The mission controllers have made adjustments as needed, ensuring the mission’s success.

Despite a few minor glitches, the Blue Ghost mission has progressed smoothly, with no major malfunctions. The spacecraft’s behavior in space has been closely monitored, with adjustments made as necessary. An additional lunar lander, Resilience, launched alongside Blue Ghost, is taking a longer route to the moon and is expected to enter lunar orbit in early May.