Private lander Blue Ghost with NASA instruments successfully lands on moon

The shadow of private lunar lander Blue Ghost is seen on the surface of the moon after landing on the moon with a special delivery for NASA. (Photo: NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

A private lunar lander carrying scientific instruments including a drill and vacuum for NASA successfully landed on the moon, the Associated Press reported. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, targeting the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in Mare Crisium on the northeastern edge of the moon’s near side.

Confirmation of the successful landing came from Firefly’s mission control in Texas, which was tracking the event from 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away.

“You all aced the landing. We’re on the moon,” Firefly’s Will Coogan, the lander’s chief engineer, told the AP. First private lander to land upright
Blue Ghost’s upright and stable landing makes Firefly Aerospace the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or flipping over. Even national space agencies have struggled with lunar landings, with only five countries succeeding: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan.

Just 30 minutes after landing, Blue Ghost began transmitting photos from the lunar surface. The first photo, a selfie, was somewhat obscured by the sun’s glare, while the second photo showed Earth as a distant blue dot against the blackness of space.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Program

Blue Ghost is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to encourage lunar commerce through private sector competition. NASA paid $101 million for the delivery of ten scientific and technological experiments on the lander, plus an additional $44 million for equipment.

Firefly’s Ray Allensworth confirmed that the lander avoided hazards such as boulders and landed in the designated 328-foot (100-meter) target area.

The mission is expected to last two weeks, after which operations will cease due to lunar night.

The lunar surface and Earth are visible on the horizon, with Blue Ghost’s solar panel, X-band antenna, on the left, and Lexi payload on the right. (Photo: NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

The lander carries a vacuum for collecting samples of lunar soil and a drill capable of measuring temperatures as low as 10 feet (3 meters) below the surface. It also includes a tool designed to eliminate moon dust, a key challenge faced by NASA’s Apollo astronauts who struggled with abrasive particles sticking to their spacesuits and equipment.

On its way to the moon, Blue Ghost took detailed pictures of Earth and later sent back high-resolution photos of the moon’s cratered surface, the AP reports.

Additionally, the onboard receiver successfully picked up signals from the U.S. GPS and European Galileo constellations, an advancement that could improve navigation for future lunar explorers.

More private landers to come
Blue Ghost’s landing sets the stage for even more commercial missions.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines plans to launch its second lunar lander on Thursday, aiming to land at a location near the moon’s south pole. According to the AP, despite a misfire on its first mission last year, the company has successfully returned a U.S. object to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

Another lander, built by Japanese company ispace, is three months away from its lunar attempt. Sharing a rocket ride with Blue Ghost on Jan. 15, ispace’s lander is taking a slower, more winding route. The company’s first lander crashes in 2023, adding to the many debris on the moon from failed landing attempts over the decades.

NASA chief scientist Nicky Fox stressed the importance of maintaining a steady pace of two private lunar landings per year, acknowledging that some missions could fail. “This really opens up a new way for us to bring more science to space and to the moon,” Fox said, according to the AP.