A private lunar lander, Blue Ghost, successfully touched down on the moon, delivering equipment for NASA and marking a significant achievement for commercial space exploration.
A private lunar lander carrying equipment for NASA successfully touched down on the moon on Sunday, with Mission Control confirming the landing from Texas.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander made its descent from lunar orbit on autopilot, targeting the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome located in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge. The company’s Mission Control, situated outside Austin, Texas, celebrated the successful landing.
“You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon,” said Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander at Firefly.
This upright and stable landing marks Firefly as the first private company to successfully place a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or tipping over. Historically, only five countries—Russia, the United States, China, India, and Japan—have achieved successful lunar landings, with some government missions having failed in the past.
Blue Ghost, named after a rare species of firefly found in the United States, stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and spans 11 feet wide, providing enhanced stability for its operations on the lunar surface.
Approximately half an hour after landing, Blue Ghost began transmitting images from the moon’s surface, with the first photo being a selfie, albeit somewhat obscured by the sun’s glare.
Two other companies are preparing to launch their landers on missions to the moon, with the next expected to join Blue Ghost later this week.
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