Blue Ghost, a lunar landing module built and operated by the American private company Firefly Aerospace and financed by NASA, has successfully landed on the moon.
After its successful lunar landing, Firefly Aerospace may soon be accompanied on the moon by two more commercial spacecrafts
On Sunday morning, after 45 days in spaceand after an hour in semi-autonomous descent Until the landing site, the car ship, the size of a car, hit the surface of Mare Crisium, a vast and old impact basin full of frozen lava on the northeast side of the moon.
“We are on the moon!“, Applauded Nicola “Nicky” FoxNASA’s associated administrator of the NASA scientific mission, after watching the landing event during a Firefly Aerospace observation event, near the company’s mission control center in Cedar Park, Texas.
“Everything worked like a clockeven at the time of landing, ”said Firefly Aerospace executive director, Jason Kimin the same event. “We already have some lunar powder in our boots!”
This is just the Second trip to the moon of a private spacecrafthe points out, and also the second time the US have been having a ship to the moon since the Apollo 17the last mission of the Apollo program in 1972.
The first private ship arrived in the moon just over a year ago, when another commercial robotic mission, the Odysseus Lander From Intuitive Machines, – where, but intact, in a crater near the lunar south pole.
In January 2024, another US commercial mission, Astrobotic’s Pilgrim Piligan Module ,.
“I am very proud of our team. Firefly has a way to constantly exceed expectations, and this is a perfect example of this, ”said Firefly Aerospace Vice President of Engineering, Brigette Oakesduring a live broadcast right after landing.
“Now We have a permanent presence on the moonwith the name of all Firefly Aerospace employees recorded on Blue Ghost. When we look at the moon, We can tell our children and future generations that our names are upstairs. ”
The Blue Ghost Mission will Search for water and other volatile substances that may be available on the lunar surface. According to the US Space Agency, this mission is critical for OE to prepare future human missions to the moon and Mars.
NASA predicts Send astronauts again to the surface of the moon In 2026, including the first woman and the first African American, in another expedition in the South Polo region, where it is expected to exist cold water.
