A U.S. private company managed to land its spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday, marking the second private mission to accomplish this and the first to achieve a vertical landing after a lengthy journey through space.
Mission 1 of Firefly Aerospace, the Blue Ghost, touched down close to 3:34 p.m. Eastern time (5:34 Brasilia time) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic structure in the Mare Crisium region on the northeast side of the Moon.
An engineer at the mission control center in Austin, Texas, shouted with delight as the team celebrated their successful arrival on the Moon.
Jason Kim, the company’s president, stated that the aircraft was “steady and upright” in contrast to the previous private mission ship in February, which landed on its side.
The project “Ghost Riders in the Sky” is a classic American country music piece that is part of the joint effort between NASA and its industry collaborators to cut expenses and back the Artemis initiative for returning astronauts to the Moon.
The small car-sized golden descent module was launched in January on a Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk. It captured stunning images of the Earth and its moon during its 45-day journey.
Blue Ghost carries ten scientific tools, such as a device for examining lunar soil, another for testing radiation-resistant computing, and a navigation system based on GPS.
Blue Ghost is designed to operate for an entire lunar day, capturing high-definition images of a total eclipse on March 14 when Earth obscures the Sun on the moon’s horizon.
It will capture a lunar sunset on March 16, revealing how dust rises above the surface due to solar effects, causing the enigmatic glow on the lunar horizon observed by astronaut Eugene Cernan during the Apollo mission.
Drone with the ability to leap.
The Blue Ghost’s arrival will be succeeded by the IM-2 mission from Intuitive Machines on March 6, featuring the Athena landing module.
Intuitive Machines achieved a significant milestone last year by being the first private company to achieve a successful soft landing on the Moon, despite being overshadowed by an incident.
One of the landing module’s feet got trapped on the lunar surface when it landed too quickly, causing it to tilt and reducing its solar energy generation, which cut short the mission.
The company states that they have enhanced the hexagonal landing module this time, which has a taller and slimmer design compared to Blue Ghost and is almost as tall as an adult giraffe.
Athena left on Wednesday on a SpaceX rocket, taking a more direct path to Mons Mouton, the southernmost landing spot that has already been established.
It carries a variety of valuable equipment, such as a drone for exploring underground Moon passages, a drill for ice excavation, and three exploration vehicles.
Grace, the jumping drone, named in honor of computer trailblazer Grace Hopper, can take the spotlight if you showcase your ability to maneuver through the challenging moon landscape.